So you think you have had a bad day?

[Lazy-Ferret]

We just spent £412.50 on a tank of diesel

As some of you may have guessed from the name, we have pet ferrets, and actually quiet a few.

Now Ferrets are not your every day pet, so finding good vets that firstly not only likes ferrets, but secondly has a good working knowledge of them, and does not actually want to rip all her clients off, can be very difficult. Luckily for us, we have a "Ferret Friendly" vet, but unfortunately she happens to be 35 odd miles away in Crawley.

Today, we have to get up early to fight the rush hour traffic on London' s M25 Orbital car park, and the M23 Gatwick Approach road, to get to the Vets with a ferret suffering from internal bleeding, so pretty urgent.

We jump in the car and realise we are low on Diesel, but there should be enough in the tank to get us there, and then fill up at one of the garages that are local to the vets, so we set off to find our slowly moving parking place on the motorway. Actually for once the traffic was moving at nearly 20mph, instead of the more usual 5mph, so we actually arrive a bit early for our appointment. I decide to productively use the time by popping down the road to the local Sainsbury's to fill the tank back up.

As I pull onto the forecourt, I check out for the Black Diesel pumps, but there are not any, only Yellow "City Diesel" ones. Having never encountered this, even at our local Sainsbury's, I do a thorough check round, and decide that as the fuel light has been on for 25 plus miles, I had best put up with that. I pull up at the pump, and find that the car in front is so far back, I can not actually get the rear of my car close enough to the pump, but just then the driver of the car comes out, and gets in to drive off. I jump back into the truck, and pull forward now to the front pump, so the car behind can get on the pump I was on. I then fill up, Empty to full, £97.50, and Suz goes off to pay.... As I look at the pump display, I realise that the pump does not actually display whether you purchased Diesel or Petrol, and I have this sinking feeling that I put the unleaded pump back in the cradle. I have been driving for 33 years, and most of that time has been in unleaded cars, so it is sort of natural to pick up the green one. Panicking, I rush in to where Suz is paying and ask whether she is paying for petrol or diesel, where the attendant cheerily replies, that it's OK, I put Petrol in......

One or two expletives later, we push the car off of the pump, and set off to walk the 2 miles to the vets. Half way there I call her to explain that we are running a bit late, and admit why. After a lot of merciless "P" taking, she actually comes out in her car to pick us up, then to add insult to injury, not realising that I had Suz with me, she only has a 2 door car, with no rear seats, as she uses it for her dogs, so I have to climb into the boot, with the dog blankets, food and water bowls, plus our ferret cage, which gave both the Vet and Suz even more to laugh about.

Having finally got through the vet examination, and being given reassuring news about the ferret (plus suffering endless "P" taking from not just the Vet, my wife, and the nurses, but the receptionist as well), they kindly charge me nearly £100 for the pleasure and send me on my way. Actually the vet did very kindly run us back to our car, but I think that was just to prolong her enjoyment, as all the time she was still giving me a hard time about it.

Once back with the car, we set to work sorting out what we are going to do with a Diesel car containing a full tank of Unleaded.

Eventually, after a ride on the back of a recovery truck, and parting with £210 to have a man stuff a Vax nozzle down the filler, sucking all the petrol out, then he kindly puts £15 of diesel back in the tank, they send us on our merry way to re-fill the tank again, only this time with diesel, which by the time we get to a garage costs us another £105.

I am now going back to bed, and going to try starting the day again...

[cncfabs]

Originally Posted by Lazy-Ferret

We just spent £412.50 on a tank of diesel

As some of you may have guessed from the name, we have pet ferrets, and actually quiet a few.

Now Ferrets are not your every day pet, so finding good vets that firstly not only likes ferrets, but secondly has a good working knowledge of them, and does not actually want to rip all her clients off, can be very difficult. Luckily for us, we have a "Ferret Friendly" vet, but unfortunately she happens to be 35 odd miles away in Crawley.

Today, we have to get up early to fight the rush hour traffic on London' s M25 Orbital car park, and the M23 Gatwick Approach road, to get to the Vets with a ferret suffering from internal bleeding, so pretty urgent.

We jump in the car and realise we are low on Diesel, but there should be enough in the tank to get us there, and then fill up at one of the garages that are local to the vets, so we set off to find our slowly moving parking place on the motorway. Actually for once the traffic was moving at nearly 20mph, instead of the more usual 5mph, so we actually arrive a bit early for our appointment. I decide to productively use the time by popping down the road to the local Sainsbury's to fill the tank back up.

As I pull onto the forecourt, I check out for the Black Diesel pumps, but there are not any, only Yellow "City Diesel" ones. Having never encountered this, even at our local Sainsbury's, I do a thorough check round, and decide that as the fuel light has been on for 25 plus miles, I had best put up with that. I pull up at the pump, and find that the car in front is so far back, I can not actually get the rear of my car close enough to the pump, but just then the driver of the car comes out, and gets in to drive off. I jump back into the truck, and pull forward now to the front pump, so the car behind can get on the pump I was on. I then fill up, Empty to full, £97.50, and Suz goes off to pay.... As I look at the pump display, I realise that the pump does not actually display whether you purchased Diesel or Petrol, and I have this sinking feeling that I put the unleaded pump back in the cradle. I have been driving for 33 years, and most of that time has been in unleaded cars, so it is sort of natural to pick up the green one. Panicking, I rush in to where Suz is paying and ask whether she is paying for petrol or diesel, where the attendant cheerily replies, that it's OK, I put Petrol in......

One or two expletives later, we push the car off of the pump, and set off to walk the 2 miles to the vets. Half way there I call her to explain that we are running a bit late, and admit why. After a lot of merciless "P" taking, she actually comes out in her car to pick us up, then to add insult to injury, not realising that I had Suz with me, she only has a 2 door car, with no rear seats, as she uses it for her dogs, so I have to climb into the boot, with the dog blankets, food and water bowls, plus our ferret cage, which gave both the Vet and Suz even more to laugh about.

Having finally got through the vet examination, and being given reassuring news about the ferret (plus suffering endless "P" taking from not just the Vet, my wife, and the nurses, but the receptionist as well), they kindly charge me nearly £100 for the pleasure and send me on my way. Actually the vet did very kindly run us back to our car, but I think that was just to prolong her enjoyment, as all the time she was still giving me a hard time about it.

Once back with the car, we set to work sorting out what we are going to do with a Diesel car containing a full tank of Unleaded.

Eventually, after a ride on the back of a recovery truck, and parting with £210 to have a man stuff a Vax nozzle down the filler, sucking all the petrol out, then he kindly puts £15 of diesel back in the tank, they send us on our merry way to re-fill the tank again, only this time with diesel, which by the time we get to a garage costs us another £105.

I am now going back to bed, and going to try starting the day again...

Well i hate so say this now but if you ever do that again the terrano has a drain plug on the tank you could have just purchased some cans from the garage and let it out yourself keepeing the petrol and just refil at the pump....sorry

[Fez_uk]

Originally Posted by cncfabs

Well i hate so say this now but if you ever do that again the terrano has a drain plug on the tank you could have just purchased some cans from the garage and let it out yourself keepeing the petrol and just refil at the pump....sorry

aye. Well at-least your ferret is ok

[96terrano]

Ohh that's bad lol, hope that's just a 1 off day for yous

Also stick a diesel only sticker on the fuel flap.

[clivvy]

bloomin 'eck! easy mistake to make under the circumstances, id have been pretty stressed too if it was one of my pets.

[Lazy-Ferret]

Originally Posted by cncfabs

Well i hate so say this now but if you ever do that again the terrano has a drain plug on the tank you could have just purchased some cans from the garage and let it out yourself keepeing the petrol and just refil at the pump....sorry

I did know about the drain plug, someone mentioned it on here before. The trouble is, with 73litres plus what ever was in the tank, and assuming they had 16 petrol cans at about £6 a time, I was about half way there... I was saying to Suz that all that petrol would have run the lawn mower for a few years...

Originally Posted by Fez_uk

aye. Well at-least your ferret is ok

Thanks.

Originally Posted by 96terrano

Ohh that's bad lol, hope that's just a 1 off day for yous

Also stick a diesel only sticker on the fuel flap.

I can't use that as an excuse, it has a big red Diesel sticker and a red fuel cap, not to mention smells of diesel when you open the cap... to be honest with all those clues, I still failed the test.

Originally Posted by clivvy

bloomin 'eck! easy mistake to make under the circumstances, id have been pretty stressed too if it was one of my pets.

Thanks, that is the only real excuse I have. All the ferrets we have are rescues, but this one was an old guy when he was found in the snow, standing in the middle of the road drinking from a salty puddle in a real state. He was already an old guy when he came here, and despite us having to pull him about a lot to get the ticks off of him, all he has ever wanted to do is curl up in Suz's lap and give her kisses... He is such a gentle little soul.

[solarman216]

Blooming heck what a day, you could have given me a call I could have picked your T2 up on my trailer and bought it to Bexhill drained the tank and put some derv in for you and paid you for the petrol all for a fraction of what you paid, however what has gone has gone, but you are welcome to come here for a day to exercise your ferrets catching rats for which I would pay, we lived here 10 years but never seen so many as we have for the last couple of months, today saw 6 on the grass at the boundary fence, shot one, and trapped another in the shed but poison seems useless, what do you say, Rick

[firebobby]

Sorry to hear about your cock-up
My wife phoned me some years ago " I think I have put petrol in the tank (Volvo 850 TDI) and thought I had better call you because it's not running very well"
The AA were called and the tank was drained, fresh correct fuel installed and the car ran OK again...we did sell it a short time later though and enter our 1st Terrano

[(RIP) PLANK]

Originally Posted by solarman216

Blooming heck what a day, you could have given me a call I could have picked your T2 up on my trailer and bought it to Bexhill drained the tank and put some derv in for you and paid you for the petrol all for a fraction of what you paid, however what has gone has gone, but you are welcome to come here for a day to exercise your ferrets catching rats for which I would pay, we lived here 10 years but never seen so many as we have for the last couple of months, today saw 6 on the grass at the boundary fence, shot one, and trapped another in the shed but poison seems useless, what do you say, Rick

get some of this, it works wonders

http://www.tfmsuperstore.co.uk/index...oduct_id=81684

[Lazy-Ferret]

Originally Posted by solarman216

Blooming heck what a day, you could have given me a call I could have picked your T2 up on my trailer and bought it to Bexhill drained the tank and put some derv in for you and paid you for the petrol all for a fraction of what you paid, however what has gone has gone, but you are welcome to come here for a day to exercise your ferrets catching rats for which I would pay, we lived here 10 years but never seen so many as we have for the last couple of months, today saw 6 on the grass at the boundary fence, shot one, and trapped another in the shed but poison seems useless, what do you say, Rick

I would have gladly taken you up on the offer...

As far as the ferrets go, all ours are "Fluffy" pets, rather than working ferrets, so we do not actually go hunting, but I was talking to a friend who does, but he says not many people nowadays will use ferrets against rats, as rats tend to fight back, and carry too many diseases to risk them. Most people trap, poison or shoot rats now. Once upon a time, just putting Ferret poo down where the rats went would make them move on, but over the last few years they have lost even that instinct.

The other day we were at the Ferret Rescue, and when they clean the cages out, they sweep the wood shavings into a wheel barrow, and take it down to a skip. We saw rats going through skip to find food. Horrible animals..

We had a problem with mice, and those ultrasonic plug in things worked a dream, and are supposed to work on rats as well, although I can't vouch for that bit, other than saying I have never seen a rat here.

[briggie]

electric fence ?

[solarman216]

Originally Posted by briggie

electric fence ?

nice idea but can't make electric fence to just target rats, Rick