Ferret Friends is run from the garden of Peter and Shirley Knight, 
actually there is no garden left its all rescue, it used to be part of the Essex 
Ferret Welfare but for the last 6 years we have been separate and using 
the name Ferret Friends. 

We don't have chairman,  secretary's or paid members, obviously Peter 
and Shirley are at the sharp end because the rescue is run from their 
house, they are supported by a small group of people who are willing to do 
anything that needs doing, we are always happy for new people to come to
the shows if they want to help out and have fun racing their ferrets, the 
only requirement is they love ferrets.

Our main source of funding for the rescue center is shows during the 
summer we spend most weekends going to shows, sometimes getting up at 
5am in the morning and getting back at 8pm on the Saturday then doing it
all again on the Sunday, its very tiring especially some months when we
have shows every weekend, and some are three day shows.

The worst show of 2006 was in Ipswich the organizer's called us, to step in
when they got let down, in March, it turned out to be the coldest snow 
bound weekend ever, I had a duck down coat, a jumper, a waistcoat, 
gloves and a balaclava, and I was still cold, we all looked like something 
out of a post nuclear war film, dressed as we were, we do joke about that 
show now, at least the ferret kept warm in there hammocks all cuddled up
together, all I can say is we must love rescuing ferrets.

We have had lots of good shows in 2006 meeting lots of nice people, but the 
one I remember was Blake hall, a girl and her mum came into the tent and 
the girl said she had held a ferret called Oscar at the show, one year ago 
could she hold him again, she held Oscar for quite some time, mum said 
she had talked about seeing Oscar again all year, when they left the girl
said she would see Oscar next year in 2007, I said he should still be with 
us, he will be 6 years old in 2007 and was a cruelty case, he came to us in
2001.

The rescue center was looking very tied in 2005 a lot of the cages were 
hutches donated with ferrets, stacked on top of one another and the 
purpose made cages were getting old, the purpose made roof had 
collapsed onto the cages and the roof made up of bits and pieces leaked,
lighting was a lead light plugged into the shed with the freezer in it, the
ferrets were OK in there cages, but not good for people to look after them
or for anyone to come and look at the ferrets unless it was light and not
raining, we had saved some money in the bank so it was decided that this
year we were going to give the rescue a make over.

  We decided to start by making 16 cages but
made them 18 inches high so we could fit 4 
cages high instead of  3 cages high, the more 
cages we could fit in, the more ferrets we could 
help, the old cages were 24 inches high, but the
ferrets never used the height, once the cages 
were ready the old cages and roof were 
destroyed, we moved the new cages into place 
and covered with sheets then the ferrets moved into their new homes, the 
new roof was going to be just over each bank of cages, but we got carried 
away and it ended up over most of the garden covering the ferrets and 
walkways,with double glazed skylights and shutters to let light in, or not, 
as required, the roof does keep the worst of the heat off with the shutters
closed and the cold out, the bottles never freeze now.

The electric's in the garden was, to say the least, dangerous, so the garden 
was completely rewired with new florescent lighting and sockets with 
switches for the lights just outside the back door, no more plugging in a 
lead light.

The biggest pain about the shows, was everything for the shows like the 
tents, goods, racing pipes and show cages was in the loft, so it all had to 
come down, then go back up again, there was a strange shaped piece of 
garden left at the end, so we decided to build a strange shaped shed, now
everything after a show can go straight into the shed.

The rescue center make over started late in 2005 after the shows had 
stoped and finished early in 2006 before the shows started although the
guttering has only just been put up for the roof Oct. 2006 and that cost
£100 to date we have spent £2,600 on materials, work was carried out
by members, we still have old cages to replace which will be done when
we save the money, we do like to keep a certain amount in the bank, just
in case we have a ferret that needs a lot spent on it.

The rescue center is a nicer place to visit if you are looking to re-home a
ferret but mainly a nicer place to look after ferrets Peter got home from
work, it was dark and snowing, he cleaned out the ferrets with loads of
light and was dry,which makes it so much easier.

Money we raise from the public mainly goes on food and veterinary care
at the moment we feed per week, approx. 840 chicks 175 bowl's of dry food,
4 trays of Tesco turkey or chicken, 28 cubes of chicken gravy, this does 
change depending on how many ferrets we have in.

One ferret came in September 2006, it looked like a dog or fox had got
him, he had bite wounds, an apses on his chin and a broken tooth it cost
£150.00 to put him back together again, and we get a discount.

To put it into perspective, when we was asked to go to a local vet open day,
we took £14 in donations , at a country park we took £18 on the Saturday
and £22 on the Sunday these shows were in 2006 all three would only pay
a third of the bill for the ferret with the broken tooth above, luckily the
average amount we take, in donations is about £60 a day, we all work hard
to make enough money to keep going.

Although primarily a ferret rescue, we do go out to capture captive bred,
birds of prey, and have rescued birds of prey that stay with us, animals 
that have been handed in to us have been, 20 pigeons, giant land snails, 
and a rat, we take them in, then pass them on to an appropriate rescue.

Update 16/04/07
                                                                                                                             

We have started to replace some of the old cages again the picture on the left shows two eight foot long cages under construction these have just one bed box right down the end, along with these two we will be making four, four foot long cages, making a total of six which will replace the six old cages, some of which you can see in the picture below left, the three high cages were still very solid but had a separate bed box inside the cage which we did not like, preferring a proper bed box, the person that took the old cages will be updating them, as you can see from the picture below right we have nearly completed all six, and ferrets have moved in, we have two four foots on top, two four foots on the bottom and two eight foots in the middle, although we have replaced six for six cages because we made them four cages deep we got two eight foots, they all look like four foots, but as you can see on the cage with the tools in, the door on the right is not a bed box but is there to make it look symmetrical.