Update on Sleaford Ferret Rescue
by Julie Stoodley
In the August issue of the newsletter I introduced myself to you and told you a little about what I was doing here in Sleaford. This is an update of what happened in 2002.
January - 6
February - 8
March - 11
April - 13
May - 13
June - 15
July - 31
August - 20
September - 4
October - 9
November - 7
December - 1
As you can see from the above, as with all our rescues, the summer was a busy time… we must try and do something about all those kits!!!
It was a busy year working the Rescue on my own, but also enjoyable and extremely knowledgeable, as I learnt so much. With each new ferret came another new experience.
My garden is now full of pens and a boarding area, thanks to my husband Ben (great handyman).
I had several great highlights of last year, one being at the start of the year and one at the end of the year.
The first was young IVY… you all know Ivy, June’s little albino jill with one eye. Ivy arrived here in January, having been found wandering on a construction site in Grimsby. After a couple of re-home’s it soon became apparent that Ivy decided she was not a Ferret and would not settle with her own kind. Off she went to June’s to take over the house… and that she did with ease! The rest is history and hats off to a great little furry that has worked her little mitts off for the PR of ferrets.
The second biggest highlight was ending the year with a re-home to Cyprus… yes Cyprus. For those of you that have not read Ferrets First magazine, Cyprus now has two 9 month old polecat jills living on the island. They live with a very nice American lady and her Cypriot husband as indoor ferrets, and of course, I did DO the home check!
Other highlights included a trip to the BBC with June, Jenny and several ferrets to record Blue Peter, which went very well. Making contact with lots of new people and re-homing a total of 160 ferrets.
2003 has started of very busy, already having had 33 ferrets through the door, I think it may be a busy year ahead.
We do seem to be getting some great PR for these wonderful animals, but the down side is that the more popular they are becoming, the more strays we are getting, we need a solution to the problem.
Breeding policies are an issue we need to be covering and action like micro-chipping, needs to be taking place (please read the article on micro-chipping). How many beloved pets are we getting through our doors? Another project I am embarking on this year is training. Training in the husbandry and welfare of ferrets in the ‘welfare’ sector. Organisations like ourselves should be giving other welfares the benefit of our knowledge. I was approached by Doncaster RSPCA to do a training course for them, which I did in March, and I am now hoping they will spread the word that we ARE out there and ask us to do some more for other areas. They were impressed with the powerpoint presentation that we did for them and I have had some great feed-back. They want me to return in a few weeks to show me what changes they have made to their enclosures, and what they have done with their new found knowledge.
Well folks that is an up-date from sunny Sleaford and I look forward to meeting some of you at the many shows that will be taking place during the course of the summer. Thank you for taking the time to read this and good luck to all the rescues for the busy months ahead.