This has been posted on other list by me but i thought that some of you
may like to read it
 
I have been giving some thought to rescued ferrets and to the many people
I have started off with ferrets.
 
Going back in time before Artis Pet Sanctuary was formed and we had no
such thing as a ferret show, I used to go to events exhibiting other
species like rabbits, cavies, rats and other rodents, the ferrets came
along as a display along with some of the more exotic rodents like
Jird=92s and Multimammite mice, so that I could get the people who owned
these other species interested in some thing different.
 
All of the people I meet at these event had heard the negative side of
ferrets, so by meeting my ferrets some fell in love with them.
 
My way of introducing potentially new ferret owners who only know the
negative side of ferrets rather than the side I am trying to portray
interested enough to take on rescued ferrets and also be able to keep
showing the animals they started with is to get them to close their eyes
and think of a cat, then let them stroke the ferret, if they are thinking
cat, once they open their eyes the first words they utter are "Yes it
do's remind me of a cat".
 
To get Jean Judd a rat judge who I meet at a show in Surbiton interested
enough in starting to keep ferrets, I asked her to think of a large buck
rat and after the rat show I went back to Jean's place and we talked more
about ferrets, Jean had an empty rabbit which she moved indoors and with
the understanding that I would leave one of my ferrets with her over the
week end on Monday I got a call asking if she could keep the ferret, I
had to say no but that I had another one she could have.  In my last
conversation with Jean she was rescuing ferrets and rats.  Just think
about how time fly's that must have been about 25 years ago when Jean got
her first ferret.
 
Karen Wilis and her husband I meet in 1973 at a rabbit show in Manchester,
Don asked me if I could get his wife interested enough in ferret so that
he could keep a couple at home to work them, but as his wife was afraid of
them, he was not allowed to keep any.  I went over to Karen and asked her
to trust and the only though she had to have in her head was about cats,
after touching my ferret they went off to deal with the rest of the show.
As the day went on Karen came back and this time asked if she could hold
the ferret and by the end of the day she had decided that she would like
to add a ferret to her collection of animals, but it must be one that
would not kill her Angora rabbits.  As I knew that all my ferrets were
good with rabbits I let her take Prunella home with her on the
understanding that I would collect her the following week end.  By the
following week end she was asking for more, she had told her husband that
he had to get his own for working as he may lose Pru.  At my last meeting
with Karen she was taking in and rehomeing 30 ferrets a year and because
of her intrest in ferret she had sold all her Angora rabbits so she could
use the hutches for rescued ferrets
 
Vicky I meet at a cavy show.  Vicky is another one who had heard the
negative side of ferrets, Vicky went on to open a registered charity
Artis Pets Sanctuary in Doncaster and has been known to take in and rehome
100 or so ferrets each year
 
When I am in the mood for writing I shall tell you more about the people
who I have come across in other fancies who I have got interested in
ferrets as a pet
 
http://uk.profiles.yahoo.com/houseferrets13uk
Ant / Tony O'Sullivan President/Secretary SMWR inc. NHFA, UK
[Posted in FML issue 3632]