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

On the left is the gorgeous Murphy whose voice was recorded to feature
in the BBC Radio Programme the Archers in April 2002.A sound recordist
named Sonya came along to the rescue from the Archer's team and
recorded a 20 minute tape full of dook dookings from our beautiful boy.
She was kind enough to send a cd with the recording on for us to keep.
So if you listen to the Archers the ferret noises you hear are most
probably Murphy's.

.MURPHY and The Archers

The Telford Orphans

Tyee and Chenoa

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.

Chenoa aged 1 week

Chenoa and Tyee aged 6 weeks

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.

Ernie came into the rescue on August 26th 2002 having been
rescue by one of our members. He had nearly 40 bites on and
around his neck and was put immediately onto anti-biotics to
help reduce the swelling. Ernie is a lovely boy and had an
operation on his neck on September 2nd. At the same time he
was neutered and had his bad teeth removed. He had another
abscess and had yet another op on October 14th,he also had the
two remaining bad teeth out. (Right) - Ernie has recovered and
is living happily at the centre with all his pals.

Before

After

On the left is a picture of Eric's back a week after treatment
started here at the rescue. Eric was found wandering in April
2002 in an awful state, he also had open sores under his chin.
The wound on his back had 28 huge ticks in it that were
removed straight away, the rest of his body was covered in
them aswell. Something had also chewed half of his ear off.
Eric is now a very happy,playful poley hob and has made a
wonderful recovery. He has been adopted by Deb Kenton and
Nick Chesterfield and lives with his pals, Bobtail and Tigger.

Rusty came to us as a stray in June
2002 with a collar of 5 abscesses. As
you can imagine he was in a bit of a
state. With three operations behind
him he is now well and fully
recovered, as you can see from the
pic on the right.Rusty and his friend
Riva have been adopted by Jo
Jeynes and share a home in a
group with 17 other ferrets.