I first came across a single ferret in the 1950's when a single albino
walked in to the outhouse in which I used to breed rabbits, mice and rats
for my locale pet shop.
 
The deal was that they would give me food to feed my pets on and I would
breed stock for them to sell, thinking about it now they were onto a
great deal as the pets I bred soon went.
 
One day this white snake like creature walked in to the outhouse and
started killing off the escapees and the wild mice and after it had
refreshed its self with food water and a sleep I picked it up and took
it outside to show some of the other lads, it was then that I found out
what a great tool it was as none of the bullies would bothered me when
it was around, I even took this animals to school in my jacket pocket.
 
No one would tell me what this animal was called and all I found out was
according to some of my fellow class mates was that this animal was
supposed to have a jaw breaking grip with its teeth and a vice like bite
down to the bone, they also told me that if I left it in the outhouse it
would kill off all my other animals.
 
So when next some of my fellow class mates came to see what devastation
this animal had caused in my population of pets, they actually walked in
to the outhouse and found this creature playing with one of my rabbits,
it was after that that they started to call me the Animal Man, even
though I was not quite in to my teens and it was from then that I found
that I could do a lot more with my pets than they could do with theirs.
 
Having recently revisited the area which I left when I was in my late
teens to take up a gardening position in the South of England, I went to
have a look at some of my old haunts and looking at the old outhouse in
which I bred those animals I could see no way in which the ferret could
have got in other than some one putting the ferret in.
 
The next time I came across ferrets was in the 70's when I meet a lady
who was in to trying to rehome ferrets, at this time I was more into
breeding and showing of rabbits but as I knew from the past ferrets and
rabbits can get on together as long as they are not left alone together,
so I started getting rabbit owners interested in ferrets.
 
Since getting a computer in the 90's I have had to take sh*t from people
who have kept ferrets for less time than I have, that is not to say that
I am an expert and a know it all, its more of a fact that where animals
are concerned there is always something new around the corner yet some of
these so called experts know it all and can never be wrong
 
Take the question of altering animals or not in the time I have had the
use of a computer their have been people who take in rescues and castrate
or spay every entire animal that comes into their possession and yet the
Americans who have altered ferrets for a lot longer time than they have
done here in the UK are finding that their ferrets have far more
illnesses that we do here in the UK and American owners are now starting
to ask question and asking themselves if mass altering of ferrets is
good for the ferrets or is it just for the owners sake, it seems that
the altering of ferrets has gone full circle and we are back to people
wanting to keep entire ferrets.
 
Diet has also gone full circle when I first started finding homes for
ferrets 90% were fed on raw food then when I got on to the Internet I
found that most people were feeding their ferrets on dry food and we had
clubs and some individuals who were pushing the feeding of dry food, we
can only surmise that at least one individual was getting supplied with
food by the way this person was pushing everyone to feed their ferrets
on it, now this has gone full circle and we are now seeing more owners
wanting to find out about feeding raw food, even the Americans are now
asking about feeding raw food
 
 
The man with a new idea is a crank until other take it up
Mark Twain
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/intact-ferrets/
http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/house-ferrets
http://www.geocities.com/houseferrets13uk/First_Page-Index.html
Come see some of my hobs and jills
http://www.geocities.com/houseferrets13uk/Some_of_my_jills.html
Some of our fund-raising events
http://www.geocities.com/houseferrets13uk/Show.html
[Posted in FML issue 5140]