Bog Myrtle & Peat

The ferrets continue to go from strength to strength. The glorious days of deep winter ferreting came to an end in Feburary, and the little bailiffs were put into temporary retirement, stretching in their straw beds and dreaming of the day when they can return to business, evicting squatters and dealing out rough justice. Their thick woolen winter coats have moulted out, and they are now sleek and slender. Despite the fact that they haven’t worked for four months, I am just as keen on them as ever, and I can’t wait until the leaves begin to turn again.

I was surprised to read in a recent edition of the Countryman’s Weekly that it is quite common for ferreters to buy kits in July, work them from September until March, then release them into the countryside to fend for themselves. The idea behind the release is apparently that they can’t be bothered to look after their ferrets over the summer, and see the small fee involved in buying a new ferret as an easy alternative to taking care of them during their eight months of inactivity. Given that ferrets quickly turn feral and look after themselves, it’s probably no real problem for the deliberately released animals, but it shows that, from my perspective, the people that do this have totally missed the point of ferreting.

Working an animal for any purpose allows you to develop a rapport with it. When one of my two ferrets bolts a rabbit, the pleasure for me is equally in seeing the bunny properly netted and in seeing the wild and delirious enthusiasm on the ferret’s face when it emerges from the hole after it. I like the concept of ferreting, but my ferrets are more than just ambivalent rabbit bolting tools – they are individuals with seperate personalities and different ways of working. My entire experience of ferreting is improved a hundred times over by the fact that I know them and have seen them grow up.

Ferreting in Britain is surrounded by a complex world of manly politics. Many ferreters don’t want to admit that they care for their ferrets because to do so would be to concede a weakness. This is largely a cover, and given that a ferreter will wait out all night if necessary for a laid up ferret, it is true to say that the majority of ferreters are really quite attached to their workers. Releasing a ferret at the end of the season is probably not all that cruel, but it shows that the ferret keeper has no respect for his animals, and doesn’t care one way or another which ferrets he works as long as they work. I occassionally come across feral ferrets in traps and lying dead by the roadside, and it not onlys seems a shame, but it’s also a bit of a waste.

Either way, I am currently on the lookout for two new polecat jills to complete my ferret armoury. If any readers have any info or leads, it would be greatly appreciated.