My First Ferret Show
Last summer, my Mum and I joined the Wessex Ferret Club and my Mum bought a hob and a Jill, through someone recommended by the club. Although I have had other pets, guinea pigs, dogs, and horses we have never had ferrets, and so we tried to find out as much as we could. We bought a book called " The Complete Book of Ferrets ", a video " The Care of Ferrets ", and we read the articles in " The Business of Ferrets ". We learned a lot from all of these and we became more confident with our own ferrets.
Then on Saturday 1 st May we went to help at the Ferret stand at the Craft show at Somerley House near Ringwood. It was quite odd at first talking to some of the other members of the club because I had seen them on video or read thing that they had written and I was quite nervous meeting them. However, everyone was really friendly and approachable and my Mum and I were allowed to help.
I really enjoyed this, because although I am only 12 years old I was able to help with the " stroke a ferret " and with the " ferret racing ". MY favourite was the ferret racing . I helped a member of the public enter " Minnie ". The person I helped seemed quite happy to handle Minnie, but some of the others looked nervous. The race was very exciting, and I thought Minnie was going to win when I saw her head peep out of the tunnel, but she was pipped at the post by a ferret called Brighty. Never mind.
The stroke a ferret was fun too. I noticed that many people were very wary of the ferrets, especially the adults. Also people would come and look at the ferrets at first and then go away, but then come back later in the day and dare to stroke them. Although this was fun, I was surprised at some of the things that people though about ferrets. I heard people saying ferrets lived on bread and milk, for example, and listened to the experienced members of the club tactfully explaining about ferrets being carnivores. I thought of what it would be like for my own ferrets licking at the milk and dreaming of a nice chunk of meat. It made me realise how important it is to show people what ferrets are really like, and to tell them about how to look after them.
I had a really good time helping at the ferret stand, it was great fun, and I am looking forward to helping at another one in the future.
Danielle , aged 12.