Big Ted

 

 

This is Big Ted he came to us in 2004 as a 1 year old, very strong, 5lb Albino Hob, the person that brought Ted to us was scared of him, and would not get him out of the box that was in the car, the man said he had bred Ted, sold him and then he came back a very nasty biter, so someone was sent out with a falconry glove on, to get him out, normally we do not use gloves to handle ferrets but because of his description of this ferret, we used a falconry glove and as it happens it was just as well because this ferret was the worst biter we have seen so far.

This was to be Ted's lucky day, because if we did not take him in, the man said he was going to knock him on the head and kill him, yes he was nasty but he didn't deserve to die like that.

Now I have a passion for hard luck cases and decided to take, Big Ted home for intensive handling I would say that someone had hurt him badly because of the way he reacted when I tried to pick him up or touch his back in any way, gloves had to be used for the first two weeks, this is not something I would normally do, but because of his size and strength he was hard to control, and holding him tight by the shoulders, only enraged him more. I have house ferrets so the very smelly Ted was booked in to the vet to be castrated with a warning to handle with extreme caution which went well.

After two weeks the gloves came off and for me it was a very painful time in our relationship which lasted for months, at times I felt like giving up, Ted had a passion for fingertips, he was big, strong and fast, and big ferrets have big teeth and strong ferrets bite hard, I could fill his teeth slowly sinking into my fingertips, the only time Ted would not bite is if he had something very nice to eat like ice cream or ferretone, then I could touch his back as much as I wanted, so it was lots of ferretone and lots of handling.

I thought I would introduce Ted to one of our ferrets to see if he was friendly so I started with marshall our 4lb Hob and worked down in size and sex but they all pushed Ted around, which he did not like, untill I tried him with Gypsey our 1lb Jill and Limpy our 2lb Hob who has a twisted pelvis and nose together they were 2lb lighter then Ted but they bonded together instantly as you can see from the picture below

 

 

One year later we still can't pick him up from the shoulders, he prefers to be picked up from the belly, he will turn on us occasionally when we touch his back, but compared to how he was he is an angel, late in 2005 at a show, I borrowed a carry box to take Ted out to race, someone took him back to the tent, Shirley thought it was her ferret, as it was her box, (they do look alike) took Ted out and started to cuddle and kiss him on the nose and face and he was fine, this is not something I would let someone do, Shirley wouldn't have, if she knew it was Ted. I am just happy that I made such a difference in Ted's life; some people thought he was a hopeless case; I had my doubts too, but now he has, a happy life with Gypsy and Limpy his new friends. Someone made Ted what he was; I made him what he is. Happy!