Well, that was a good day..

[Lazy-Ferret]

As many of you know by now, we do what we can to help out our local ferret rescue.

One of the things they do to raise funds is to put on ferret shows, with rosettes and things as prizes. I have never been that mad on showing animals, but as all the money raised goes to helping more ferrets, we tent to go along and offer our support, often behind the scenes, but it gets us out for the day, and we get a chance to chat to other ferret friendly people.

When Suz and I ran the Kent Ferret Club, every so often, in order to get all the members together, and chatting in a more social environment, we used to run what we called fun shows, which rather than the serious pulling a ferret about checking teeth, ears, feet, coat etc, we had basically silly classes like "Ferret with longest tail", "fluffiest coat", "biggest ears"... and so on. Then, rather than judges, each of the members would wander round looking at each others ferrets, and would also have a score card, where they made a note of any ferrets they thought should win that class. This would brake the ice nicely.

One of the problems the Rescue have found when doing shows is they end up with a room full of about 100 people and ferrets, who basically have nothing to do all day other than sit around waiting for all the ferrets to be judged, and the results to be announced at the end of the day.

So this year, they asked Suz and I to put on some fun classes to get the people talking, and interacting during the day. We decided to run 3 fun classes, and a best decorated cage, in an Easter or Spring Theme, and charge people to enter. Practically every one entered, and got into the spirit, so not only did we raise a reasonable bit of money for the rescue, but got every one wandering round and talking ferrets.

This time, we decided to take some of our own ferrets along and enter them into the main show as well. Now, as I said, we don't really do shows, so there we are watching all these "professionals" cleaning their ferrets ears, and paws, wiping their fur, and brushing their coats... We on the other hand had our 12 ferrets, all fresh from playing in the garden and house, exactly as they come as standard.

We entered each ferret in it's corresponding class, plus a father and son we have in a pairs class, as they look almost identical, and then set on with running the fun classes.

The end of the day comes and we give out the prizes for the fun classes, and then they set too, announcing all the main show winners.

Well look here...



Our Polecat not only won first place in his class, but also won "Best in Show". The two we entered in the pairs, also won their class, and as you can see, several others all placed...

Now to say I am sitting here with a smug look is an understatement... with no preening or prissiness, our guys are good enough to win straight out of the box....

[Sweety]

Congrats on your wins glad the day was a success & the rescue raised some much needed funds

[jims-terrano]

Well done

[Lazy-Ferret]

Cheers Guys...

[Barrbeast]

Yeh well done bud

[johnb5177]

Very good

And huge congrats to lots of furry beasties

[AlexD333]

Originally Posted by Lazy-Ferret

Now, as I said, we don't really do shows, so there we are watching all these "professionals" cleaning their ferrets ears, and paws, wiping their fur, and brushing their coats... We on the other hand had our 12 ferrets, all fresh from playing in the garden and house, exactly as they come as standard.

Yeah right, I bet you spent nights prepping cotton buds out in all the nooks and crannies

That's a damn good amount of awards too!!

[perelaar]

Well done, congratulations!! But, where are the ferret pics?

[Lazy-Ferret]

Originally Posted by AlexD333

Yeah right, I bet you spent nights prepping cotton buds out in all the nooks and crannies

That's a damn good amount of awards too!!

Yeah right indeed... You come round here, and try prepping a full polecat with cotton buds... Then count your fingers... He is a pussy cat most of the time, as long as we stick to the compromise, I feed him what he wants, and provide clean bedding, and a garden to play in, and he lets me have 2 and a half min's petting each day... Simples...

Originally Posted by perelaar

Well done, congratulations!! But, where are the ferret pics?

Here you go... Please excuse how stressed out the ferrets look, you can see they really take this showing lark seriously..

Here he is, with Topic and Chomp, stressing out about the judging..


Here's our boy proving he can still get his head through the door.....Fame isn't going to change him.


This is Poppet, she also placed in her class.


And Minstrel, she also placed in her class.


Lastly, some of the competition, again, highly stressed by the whole event..

[rustic]

What a great day, and to have won all those rosettes too.