Bog Myrtle & Peat

I have been working towards getting a pointer puppy. My entire life on the hill would be a hundred times easier if I had access to a pointer, particularly since the red grouse are so sparsely scattered across the farm that it’s now been some months since I’ve seen any of my birds at all. While loosely considering the prospect of pets, I noticed some ferrets advertised for sale near Arrow in Warwickshire while I was down at the CLA game fair.

I have always wanted ferrets, but never really seem to have taken the plunge and got some of my own. I have very fond memories of working ferrets in the past, and I know that they are relatively easy animals to keep. They occupy a middle ground between passive pets like hamsters and goldfish and more pro-active species like dogs and horses. Since I will soon turn 25 and was considering getting a pointer, I thought that ferrets might not be out of my league. However, my main problem was that I have a limited budget which necessarily needs to be spent on black grouse habitat, and keeping any pets is notoriously expensive. Ferrets would bring nothing to the project except a few dead rabbits each year, but as soon as I saw the kits, I couldn’t go back.

Exploiting my ignorance, the ferret breeder was cunning and sold me two of the scrawniest little kits I have ever seen, but I can hardly hold it against him. I was out of my depth as soon as I said “hello”. I now know that one of the kits has “seal flipper” syndrome, meaning that he had calcium deficiencies in his early life and now has extremely weak front paws. The other appears to have attention deficit disorder, and neither would make it into any pedigree handbook.

However, now they are mine, I’m going to do my best by them. Named “Dunder” and “Bluxom” after the Afrikaans words for thunder and lightning, the little boys will someday attempt to wreak havoc on the Chayne’s rabbit population. They would have met a fairly grisly fate if nobody else had bought them, and even if their rabbiting abilities will probably be quite limited, it is fascinating to watch them bustling around with a grave and self-important swagger. I hope they’ll have a good life, although I’m under no illusions about the value of their contribution to my project…