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E-mail from John Goddard- Ashfield Ferret Club - September 2003

Hi Rose, have to tell you this it might help others become aware. Last night at 6.30pm I was getting
ready to go out with Margaret, Clare was in bed, she's on nights. I smelt smoke from the garden, when
I went out it was snowing with ash. I saw plums of smoke coming from an adjacent garden but
couldn't see because of the ferret pens and garage. I got an hose pipe out and started to hose the roof
of the garage and especially the ferret pens. I climbed up onto a garden cupboard and saw flames
licking up the fence behind the pens, an idiot two gardens down behind us had built two bonfires and
lit them both they were about 3 feet from the hedge and fence. I realised now that I wasn't going to be
able the keep the fire away. I screamed for Margaret to phone 999 and screamed for Clare to wake
up and get down to help. the fire had now started to take hold of the rear of my garage although it is
concrete but the facia is wood, the flames were so intense now and I could see that the first of our
sheds/pens was starting to smoulder. I kept the hose going on the roof and Clare appeared with
Margaret, I told them to get the ferrets out of the shed as smoke was now pouring into it from behind.
this is where the problems got worse. we have locks on every cage in the first shed and in the panic
Clare couldn't find the right keys, Margaret started evacuating the second pen as that was the
obvious next pen to catch alight. the fire brigade arrived just then and they started to try and control
the fire but they made Clare get out of the shed which was now on fire at the back, I was crying at this
point because I knew she hadn't got the ferrets out and they were going to die of smoke inhalation if
not out soon. so I ran into the shed and started forcing the doors open, I couldn't see much as the shed
was full of thick smoke, as I got to the first ferrets a neighbour ducked into the shed and took the ferrets to safety
then another ducked in and took more to safety. The fire was contained by now but lots of smoke still around. in all
we lost no ferrets, we have brought the ones from the smoke filled shed into the house to keep an eye on them, but
they seem to be ok. Then we had time to look back and see what we could have done differently. Just where do you
put 80 ferrets in a hurry, how do you secure ferret pens/hutches with locks, but remember under duress which are
which. If this had happened 40 mins later we wouldn't have been in and Clare would still have been asleep in bed. we
WOULD have lost all four ferret pens with ferrets. The fire brigade said they can't charge the occupant of the other
property because it wasn't malicious or criminal, just his stupidity in lighting the rubbish in his garden, there are
another 3 gardens backing onto us, and 2 have bonfires built, they have been told not to light them, but who's there
to stop them. I was so frightened for the ferrets Rose, all I could see was them burning in my minds eye, and last night
I could still see that. looking at the damage today two fence panels are destroyed, the facia on the rear of the garage
plus 2 metal roof panels are burnt through, the shed has one side burnt, not completely through but badly charred
and a roof panel burnt, the second pen needs a roof panel. Please can I ask you to highlight the dangers of garden
fires to your members and on your website, they don't need to be there's, and Bonfire night is just around the corner.

John Goddard

I had a phone call from Phil Wilson on 27th August to say, he was going
to pick up two ,week old kits from Telford.Their Mother and five brothers
and sisters had been drowned, but somehow these two were taken to a
safe haven.Phil sat up all that night feeding the kits every two hours and
kept them warm by putting them inside his shirt. The next day Troy
Coverdale, one of our members met Phil somewhere on the M6 to bring
the kits back here as Phil was unable to care for them long term.My
Hubby Arthur went off to the vets to pick up some Cimicat, which is
dried milk for young animals.I waited very nervously for these two tiny
creatures to arrive, wondering if we could help them to survive. I had my
doubts when I saw them as they were so tiny.

I had never raised any animal this young but Arthur and I decided we
were going to have a damn good crack at it.We decided that every day
they survived was a bonus.

Out come my bible ( The complete book of ferrets by Val Porter and
Nicholas Brown) to help us through the feeding. How much milk do you
give a tiny creature like this? The bottle I had was to big so we used a
tiny syringe. I must add that my Vet Roger Hands and his staff were
wonderful.

We put the kits in an incubator type pen with a hot pad under their little basket that we re-heated every 4
hours. We fed the little ones every 2 hours round the clock for the first two weeks and then every three until
they were 4 weeks old.Then we cut down the night feeds and fed them every 4 hours. We introduced them to
softened ferret biscuits and mince at 3 weeks old aswell as their milk. We also had to wash their little private
bits every time we fed them to make them pee and poo.At five weeks I had my first nights complete sleep
and I can tell you I was ready for it too.As you can see from the bottom left hand picture they have grown
into two very beautiful polecat jill kits and Arthur and I are not only delighted they made it but very proud of
them.Needless to say they have been adopted by us.They are now eating fresh rabbit ,hard ferret biscuits in
fact they are like all other kits,eating for England.

You may have read our story about Lagooni and the struggle we had to keep her. But thanks to DEFRA we
now have a licence for her, that was amended on July 31st 2003 to enable us to keep Sebatian our new mink.
He was taken to friends of ours,Debbie and Paul Cant, in Suffolk who run a ferret rescue. Debbie knew straight
away that this beautiful creature was not a ferret ( the tail and the webbed feet gave it away) and informed
DEFRA immediately. She also took Seb to the vet where it was confirmed he had a fractured jaw. The vet
removed some broken teeth and said the jaw would heal on it's own,which it has done.They sent a wild life
adviser to see Sebastian and confirmed he was a mink even though his colour was unlike that of the mink you
would see on the river bank.Seb is about 16 weeks old in the pictures above and weighs in at over 3 lbs.Deb
and Paul applied for a licence to keep him but were turned down due to not being able to afford the annual fee
of �185 However rather than have him put to sleep DEFRA said he could come to me. My hubby Arthur and
friend Andy went to Suffolk to pick the up the boy and Deb and Paul were extemely sad to see him go. Seb is
different to Lagooni in as much as he likes humans and ferrets.He does not like being held even though I do
cuddle him much to his disgust.We found him a large albino hob kit to play with as it was obvious he needed
a friend apart from me.Now they live happily together in a pen that has a bath for Sebatian to swim in. Due to
his problem with his jaw all his meat has to be cut up for him. We feed him minced beef, fresh white fish, liver,
steak and he does try and have a chew on fresh rabbit. Suma ,his friend, eats his ferret biscuits and helps
Sebastian out by nicking some of his meat, which won't hurt him at all.

We had to make a minor change to the pen we had chosen for Sebastian to create a double door for safety to
stop the risk of him escaping. He now has many visitors and is far from the shy boy that came here in
September.

Please note that like Debbie and Paul you don't automatically get a licence because you apply. It is against the
law to keep mink without a licence so don't be tempted to go and trap one with the view of keeping it as a pet.
They can be extremely vicious and are destroying masses of our wildlife. They are not native to the UK hence
the licence.