Colin and Pippen
This is a picture of our resident ferrets Colin and Pippen. Colin is a male Polecat ferret while Pippen is the more usual albino. Pippen arrived here at Mossburn first, on the 13th of September 2001 and is a female or Jill. She belonged to a man who split up with his girlfriend, who not wanting to be left with a ferret, took them Pippen to her ex boyfriend's mother and left her on the doorstep! Mother rang Mossburn and we agreed to take Pippen on the condition that her son would pay for her to be neutered. Female ferrets have to either be bred or neutered as they become ill otherwise.

Pippen duly arrived and was operated on the following week, despite many phone calls asking him to keep his side of the bargain her ex owner has failed to contribute any money towards her operation. But she is an adorable girl, about three years old this year, full of fun and curiosity. However when Colin arrived, on the 17th of February 2002, she was a little taken aback by the appearance of this sleek handsome male who, despite their operations, was very interested in her as a female. We cooled his ardour by anointing Pippen's neck with Noof, a foul smelling ointment made from the Indian Lilac plant and now the two of them are inseperable.

Colin was found by a Fireman in Gretna curled up on one of his dog's beds in a shed used as a kennel. Allthough the local Police Stations were alerted to the fact he had been found no one came forward to claim him. We were a little suprised at this as Colin was in very good condition and unusually friendly. As you can see from the photograph the ferrets have harness' and are taken out regularly for walks which they love. We cannot let them run free due to the number of our rabbits in the vicinity because, allthough to our knowledge none of them have ever been used to go rabbiting, it would be natural for any ferret to kill a rabbit given the opportunity.