| Nov 12 2008
by Peter Taylor
Evening Chronicle
WHEN this lot go a-walking, they certainly get the street talking. Jack,
Claude and Silver are a trio of ferrets who have become furry celebrities
in their neighbourhood.
That’s because they get hooked up to a harness and taken for walks
around the streets of Blyth.
They have become a popular sight as they enjoy the outings with their
owners – John Dickinson and his partner Dawn and their children
Rhianna, seven, and Connor, five, of Hallside.
Mr Dickinson said: “We take them along the street for a few hundred
yards each time.
“They are quite interesting to watch. Usually when ferrets get
out you don’t see them again, so we have been very lucky.”
The family’s bond with ferrets started around two years ago when
Jack, an albino, was given to them by a friend.
A little later they acquired two females, Silver, a silverback, and
Snowy, an albino.
Snowy escaped and was never found, but then Claude turned up in the
family’s garden after being attracted by the other ferrets there.
The community was devastated when Jack and Claude disappeared after
raiders broke in to the garden where they were kept.
Neighbours got together to join in the search and their efforts paid
off after the pair were found in another part of Blyth and reunited with
their family.
They are now safely back in their hutches, much to the delight of the
locals. They feared they had lost Jack and Claude forever when raiders
scaled a fence to get into the back garden of their home.
The intruders went into a shed where the pets’ three hutches were
and forced them all open.
The family and friends searched the area for them without success and
had resigned themselves to failure when they got a lucky break.
Mr Dickinson, 49, a community support worker, said: “They had
been handed in to the local Ferret Trust and had been given to these
people to look after.
“It took a little while for it to sink in that they were missing.
We didn’t know if they had been stolen or let out maliciously.
The kids were heartbroken. We had to take them to the hutches to show
that they were gone.
“The ferrets belong to Rhianna and Connor. They were hand tamed.
You could hold them without them biting you. Looking after them was something
for the children to do.
“We went around the doors with a little photo to see if anybody
had seen them.
“They were quite well known to our neighbours because we used
to take them for walks using their leads and harnesses.
“We would take turns to take them out a couple of times a week
mostly in the summer. It keeps their nails down.”
The ferrets have been home now for almost a week and are showing no
signs of distress.
|
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