" LAGOONI " 2001 Our Special Pet Mink.

These pictures were taken at dusk so the flash reflected in Lagooni's eyes and I can assure you she is not the devil type creature displayed above. She is a very loving ,playful, funny, intelligent little mink and loves the camera.

SEBASTIAN 2003

You 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 Sebastian 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 extremely 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,Suma and a sandy kit,Yiska 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 Sebastian 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 and Yiska ,his friends, eat his ferret biscuits and help 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.

CHEYENNE 2007 - OUR NEW BABY

When Shashone died in 2006 it left a huge hole in our hearts. We also worried that Lagooni may pine for him. Thank goodness she didn't. On June 13th 2007 I had a call from a lady in Surrey who had a baby mink taken to her . As she couldn't keep him she arranged to meet me in Cheltenham and hand him over to join our mink. In the pictures Cheyenne is about 6 weeks old and as strong as a horse. He had a blood test on June 18th to make sure he hadn't got the fatal Aleutians disease that could be passed on to my mink and the ferrets in the rescue. The results came back negative so he will be introduced to Lagooni and hopefully live a full and healthy life here at the rescue. Cheyenne is extremely tame and likes nothing more than a rough and tumble with me. He loves his belly tickled and he loves to be cuddled. He lives indoors with us at the moment in a large pen with lots of toys to play with. Even at this age he can rip his way through a piece of steak or raw fish easily. Mink have extremely strong jaw bones. Cheyenne was neutered in December 2007. He still lives indoors with us as neither of my others would accept him. He has a very large two story pen now that has a swimming pool on the bottom floor. Rest assured this little mink will not be terrorizing the countryside destroying our wildlife. Again I must remind you that you will need a LICENSE to keep any mink in the UK. THE WILDLIFE LICENSING UNIT IS NOW NATURAL ENGLAND IN BRISTOL NOT DEFRA.