Sorry guys, this is going to be a long one, there was so much character in this one little bundle of trouble, I need to do him justice.
On April the 5th, 2011, we received an email asking us if we could collect a ferret from Staplehurst. He was filthy, very flea ridden and stank to high heaven, but seemed friendly enough. He was starving, but weirdly, he would not eat raw meat.
As soon as we got him home, we bathed him to get rid of the fleas, and check he had no other marks or wounds. He was OK with that, but over the next couple of days he turned into a monster. The first thing he did was attack the cat, grabbing on and not letting go, to the point we had to run him under cold water to make him let go. Then over the next couple of days he turned on us, biting badly right down to the bone.
I got to the stage that my hands were swollen from all the bites, and I was struggling to bend my fingers. He was not even just going for exposed skin, we had to tuck our trousers into our socks, and wear shoes, as he bit right through my Crocs, and would still bite us through clothing. When he bit, he would not let go at all, we tried all sorts of things, but it just resulted in more and more bites.
It got to the stage we had to run a sink of cold water before we let him out, as at some point he would get me, and would not let go, one time he actually got a finger from each hand in his mouth at the same time, and was just tearing the sides off of both fingers, worst part I was here on my own, and had forgot to run the sink of cold water, but luckily the back door was open, so I had to use the pond to make him let go. After this, I could no longer let him out if I was on my own.
To quote from one of my posts at the time we got him,
“He will not touch any treats, Ferretvite, or tone, and about the only thing we have found to interact with him, is a snake on a stick, which he grabs and spends the next 10 mins with his teeth embedded in, and won’t let go. Eventually, once we get a bit bored of holding a ferret on the end of a stick, he settles down to bite the head off of it. This guy is a real killer..
When he bites, it is like a machine gun, several very quick puncture nips just to make sure there is plenty of blood, then he latches on, and to be honest, seeing how he is with the snake, I do not think he would let go before I had lost a pint of the red stuff. When he has got me, we have had time to try and get him off, which the first time we tried, resulted in him latching onto a second finger, get up from the sofa, unlock and open the back door, find the remote light switch, and cross the garden to the water butt, before then dunking him, without him even trying to let go. Once wet, he is distracted enough to take back to his cage without any further bites.”We did discover he was nuts about my home made soup, so you could put him in the cage, and as soon as he saw the bowl, he was off and drinking. A few days later, he came round to the raw meat as well, but the soup was his favourite.
The whole thread with what we went through when he arrived is here
http://www.fluffyferretforum.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=1134.15When he arrived, we already had 12 ferrets, and never had any intention of keeping him, so had arranged that once a cage at the rescue was free, we would take him along. After the first couple of days though, we realised we had probably taken on more than we could handle, the problem was, the Rescue was having more and more ferrets arrive, so a cage never seemed to free up. He was even having to divide cages into two as he had so many un-neutered hobs coming in.
For the first time ever, I purchased a set of welding gloves just to handle a ferret, not my proudest day!… What I would do with them was slip my hand most of the way into the glove, and then once he had latched onto one of the glove fingers, slip my hand out and do whatever we needed to, as his fixation of staying latched on meant he just stayed with the glove in his mouth, not letting go.
We were now due to go away in the caravan in a couple of weeks, and I had to make a decision, I knew that if there was any chance, this guy was going to take a lot of time, and patience, which a rescue did not have, but to be honest, I was actually really scared of him, which was not helping with my confidence, and he could sense it.
Another quote
“As you know, we made the decision to take him over to Roy and Christine at Harrietsham Ferret rescue on Tuesday, as he is such a monster.
Sunday we kept thinking about him, and how we were taking the easy way out, after all, we have not really had any experience of an aggressive in season hob, as all the ones we have had in the past have only really been kits that have come into season, not adults, with a couple of years under their belt.
Monday, Suz spent ages saying how mean she felt, as he loved his nightly soup so much, preferring to drink it all down, before even sniffing his raw meat and he would not be getting that any more.
Tuesday, I kept thinking how lucky we have been with all the ferrets we have had up to now. I then read 2 posts about people who were having trouble with their bitters, and got to thinking about the first ever ferret I had. She was evil, through and through, and would not just occasionally bite a hand at the end of play time, she would pursue you, and corner you, and attack absolutely anything she could get at, including biting my chest through a jumper and tee shirt... She was so bad, that with our inexperience, we had to take her back, which was funny, as she was all over the guy we got her from, kissing his ear, you name it, I think she just did not like me...
So I decided to see how he was with our guys, and was surprised at how little aggression he showed through the bars, and to be honest, the same for our guys. So I took the bull by the horns, and let them all out together.. Apart from Aero, who did this amazing "puffer fish" impression, and grew to the size of a great dane, all the rest were fine. I left them to play, lots of wrestling, but no scared poos, or bushed tails. He was so tired after 3 hours of the Ikea 9, I put him back to bed with no problems.
Anyway, I called Roy on Tuesday, and had a long chat, and we have come up with a compromise. Since Thursday last week, He has had so many Hobs come in, he is currently full, and having to refuse any more in-season hobs, because they are all 1 to a cage and he has run out of cages. I think he said he had been busy making 37 more cages which all had just one full hob in each.
So, we are taking AlienII, now formally referred to as "Chomp", in line with our chocolate theme, and his current nature, along to the Vets on Monday, to be made into a new man...
We are then going to drop him off at Roy's, for them to "baby sit" while we are on Holiday, so we do not have to live in the confines of a caravan with his smell, and while there, Roy will see if he can works some magic on him. We will then bring him back to his new home, and continue to work with him, and ultimately, if we really can't sort him out, Roy has said he will take him on later.”What I did not write at the time was, I spent a large amount of Monday night, sat beside his cage in tears, talking to him, telling him how once we sent him to the rescue, there was no more soup, or no more fun times running round the garden playing with the other guys, and how bad he was making me feel for being the one who was going to have to give up on him. It was like that was the night he turned around though, he stopped biting, we got him neutered, moved in with the other guys, and became best friends with Aero. We decided that the best course of action was to go "all in", so took him away with us in the caravan.
Now all of that happened in the space of about 3 weeks, and he had gone from being one of Aliens babies to the nicest ferret you could ever ask for. Him and Aero were best mates, going everywhere together, walking on leads on all our holidays and always up for a snuggle and kisses.
Over time we worked out a few things about Chomps history, by the way he reacted to things, and think he was badly beaten up and kicked very badly before he came to us, as he always had bit of a weakened back end, and a bent tail, and even to his last days would flinch if you tried to pick him up too quickly from behind, or waved a hand near him, but he never ever bit anyone again, and became one of our best PR ferrets.
He loved to race, and when we did the Children V Ferret races would often shoot out the end of his pipes, and then chase the children down theirs still finishing in first place.
When Aero died, we thought we would lose Chomp as well, but luckily the rapid unexpected arrival of Poppet, and later Topic and Bourneville gave him a purpose, so he took them under his wing, and taught them how to be nice ferrets. He had a real fixation on Tennis balls, and rope toys, and would spend ages lining them up in certain places, or stuffing them into a tube till it was full, a habit he seems to have passed onto Bourneville.
Just after Aero died, we took Chomp out for a walk on the beach, to try and distract him a bit, and by pure chance he found a tennis ball. We were over a mile from the car, but he picked it up and carried it all the way back. If you click on one of the pictures you will see a video of him trotting along with it in his mouth, continually falling into the drainage holes as he had his head up so high.
He has been showing his age a bit over the last few weeks, spending a lot more time sleeping, and just the odd time playing with Poppet, Topic and Bourneville. A few times he seemed to lose the use of his back end completely, and we think he had arthritis from where he was kicked, so cold and damp days would make him worse. While away at Strumpshaw, ironically the first place he came away on holiday with us when we got him, he got an upset tummy, which got worse. We were syringe feeding him his favourite soup to make sure he did not get dehydrated, and he seemed to rally. We booked him into the vets when we got home, but the ferret vet was not available till today. We were not too worried, as he seemed to be improving, but then late last night he took a turn for the worse, and when I got up at 4am to check on him, and give him some more convalescent food, I discovered he had passed away.
I am so gutted, not only was he such an important little character in my life, teaching me so much, but he was also my last living link to Aero, who was also a very special ferret, both leaving holes that are pretty near impossible for another ferret to ever fill. Chomp, you made me cry when you arrived, and now again you have left. We will miss you so much, but take some consolation in you can now finally be reunited with Aero, and have an unlimited supply of tennis balls and soup.
:angel1:Sweet Dreams little Buddy.
