Monday, 24 September 2018

Taking your ferret on holiday?

I’ve just  heard a bewildering snippet on the news, saying that if we want to take cats, dogs or ferrets over to Europe after Brexit we’ll have to see a vet several months ahead. Cats and dogs I can understand (though I’ve yet to meet a cat that would appreciate being conveyed abroad for a fortnight), but ferrets? Really?

I confess that I know little about ferrets (apart from what I’ve gleaned from the Archers, and hearing about people with a predilection for putting them up their trousers; why on God’s good earth would anyone in their right mind want to do that?), but does anyone, ever, take their ferret with them on holiday?

Any ferret-lovers reading this - please enlighten me. I’d really love to know.

22 comments:

  1. Ha ha. Nope. In fact, they are such a pest here in NZ, you may be imprisoned if you brought one into the country, even if it was trouser-trained.

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    1. Kate, I’ve since learned that taking your ferret for a walk is quite a common practice 🙂

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    2. I suspect 'common' is a relative term in this case.

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    3. Well, I've seem people in the States taking their CAT for a walk. That's pretty weird. Cats don't walk on leads well at all.

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    4. Kate, I think maybe it’s because people feel a bit silly going for a walk by themselves. They need something to lead...?

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  2. All I know about them is that they stink ! Friends of one of my boys had one that was allowed to run around the house, and the smell was dreadful!

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    1. I’ve heard that too, Frances. Oh well, each to his own!

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  3. It's just Project Fear. You won't be able to fly either.

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    1. Fear of Ferrets....now there’s a title for a book. Will you write it, Adrian, or shall I?

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    2. You better had. I can only write a bit and still struggle doing joined up letters.

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  4. Ferrets are from my favorite animal, but they would be higher on my list of possible pets than pythons or iguanas.

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    1. Passport for a Python....another promising book title, RWP?

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    2. Non-fiction: 'Travel Hints for Iguanas.'

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    3. Don't mention Python. Wednesday I spent over an hour getting Python script to work.

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  5. While I've never heard of anyone taking a ferret on holiday, I can certainly understand why you'd need special permission to do so... This still raises a lot of other questions for me - like how how reassuring is it really to have a vet examine a small animal months ahead of the actual trip??

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    1. I quite agree, DT. In my experience, small animals don't often last very long!

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  6. I suspect that, like so many scares associated with leaving or remaining, it's all nonsense based on a fact. For example I understand that it take thee weeks from a rabies jab before the recipient can go abroad. Then, presumably, it might be decided that a vet might have to check that the jab has been effective. That soon becomes a couple of months. When there is no deal and all the planes stop, everyone is stranded in no-man's land and can't get out of or into Little Britain and the world collapses (as it did('nt) at the Millennium) I'm sure Something Will Happen.

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    1. And does that mean we will or won’t be overrun with holidaying French ferrets? I’m afraid I’m very behind with the news (although I do have a letter in today’s Times...about labradoodles).

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    2. Now if your letter had been in last Saturday's Times when I was in hospital (the only time I get a newspaper) I'd have read your letter.

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    3. More hospital,Graham? Are you okay? Apropos the letter, it was only a silly one. I leave the serious ones to John. But I have quite a good strike rate. I rather wish I’d kept them all, now...

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  7. That's a new one, Frances - can't imagine why anyone would want a ferret, never mind taking them on holiday!

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