Lesley Jones
Otherwise know as Zooey
I can't remember if I told you that we lost one of our elderly jill ferrets during the Jubilee celebrations. We took our two llamas and some of our ferrets to the village fete in early June. Poppy would have been a candidate for the racing, only we were worried she might slip out between the bars of the safety cage (to protect them as there was also a dog show taking place). She hadn't been sick once since being brought to us as a stray several years ago. Two or three days after the show, we found her dead in their room - perfectly peaceful and not a mark or stain on her.
This morning we found our little disabled hob Bunsen dead outside his bed. We knew he had adrenal tumours and he had an implant to stop some of the symptoms back in February. His mum survived for a year with the same problem and 18 months isn't unusual. We don't miss anything though, so to lose two so close together with no warning signs is shocking.
I've been stressing about Purdy cat with the brain tumour and this morning we had the large animal vet out to treat our llamas (again) for liver fluke. We've been trying to get rid of that since June.
I went into the ferret room to get Bunsen's favourite toy to bury him with and I found some of them sleeping in the corner. This isn't a lot and there can be anything up to a dozen of them there, only this time they had tipped over their box of play balls.
On the right is Lola. Her sister died very suddenly one evening and her owners wanted Lola out of the house the same night. They told people she got at some rat poison, only it doesn't work as quickly as that. I'll leave you to make up your own conclusions. Next to her is Welly, who had his canine teeth broken off with pliers before being worked as a kit and then lost in the coldest part of the winter. Needless to say I never tried to find his owners. In the middle is Louis who was a stray and made his home in the summer house of a huge old mansion. The lovely couple fed him there for a few days before calling me to rescue him. On his left is Wall-E who was thrown in a rubbish bin about three months ago. He savaged me badly twice a day for ten days and then he turned into the most wonderful cuddly ferret you can imagine. He was trusted with children at the Jubilee fair. On the left is Ben who was one of four ferrets we took from a guy who had seventeen (including young kits) in a five foot, two storey hutch. They were only fed what his working jills could catch and we're sure the little ones often went without. We took Dad and three kits, a friend took Mum and five kits and we eventually got the rest out and rehomed.
This is only a tiny corner of their large room that is pretty much a ferret adventure playground with umpteen beds, boxes, a ten metre builder's rubble tube and a kid's slide. At least Bunsen had a good life...
This morning we found our little disabled hob Bunsen dead outside his bed. We knew he had adrenal tumours and he had an implant to stop some of the symptoms back in February. His mum survived for a year with the same problem and 18 months isn't unusual. We don't miss anything though, so to lose two so close together with no warning signs is shocking.
I've been stressing about Purdy cat with the brain tumour and this morning we had the large animal vet out to treat our llamas (again) for liver fluke. We've been trying to get rid of that since June.
I went into the ferret room to get Bunsen's favourite toy to bury him with and I found some of them sleeping in the corner. This isn't a lot and there can be anything up to a dozen of them there, only this time they had tipped over their box of play balls.
On the right is Lola. Her sister died very suddenly one evening and her owners wanted Lola out of the house the same night. They told people she got at some rat poison, only it doesn't work as quickly as that. I'll leave you to make up your own conclusions. Next to her is Welly, who had his canine teeth broken off with pliers before being worked as a kit and then lost in the coldest part of the winter. Needless to say I never tried to find his owners. In the middle is Louis who was a stray and made his home in the summer house of a huge old mansion. The lovely couple fed him there for a few days before calling me to rescue him. On his left is Wall-E who was thrown in a rubbish bin about three months ago. He savaged me badly twice a day for ten days and then he turned into the most wonderful cuddly ferret you can imagine. He was trusted with children at the Jubilee fair. On the left is Ben who was one of four ferrets we took from a guy who had seventeen (including young kits) in a five foot, two storey hutch. They were only fed what his working jills could catch and we're sure the little ones often went without. We took Dad and three kits, a friend took Mum and five kits and we eventually got the rest out and rehomed.
This is only a tiny corner of their large room that is pretty much a ferret adventure playground with umpteen beds, boxes, a ten metre builder's rubble tube and a kid's slide. At least Bunsen had a good life...
