Occasionally, Winnie would get a rabbit banged up in a dead end. Rabbits have no defence against ferrets except flight and if cornered they will just shove as much of their body as they can into a dead end and hope for the best. The ferret scrabbles at them and pulls fur out of their back end but usually gets fed up and leaves them. On occasion you would hear Winnie squealing with frustration down the hole and every now and again he would emerge from the warren and run round on his hind legs chattering with fury. You could tell he had one holed up, his front claws would be full of fur, he would dive in again and have another go and Ted and I would just laugh at him. Eventually he would either bolt it or give up, we always let him decide when he had had enough. We used to gut the rabbits and examine the livers, if the livers were good the rabbit hadn’t got Myxomatosis. We’d always keep a couple for ourselves and I’d give Winnie the livers out of these and then shove him inside my shirt. He would coil himself round my back next to the skin and go to sleep.
We got back into the Dog one evening after a profitable night out and were having a couple of beers before going up home and frying some home cured ham. One thing I have always recognised is that no matter what field of human endeavour you are operating in there’s always some clever so and so who knows more than you do. On this particular night Old Sid Demaine was in the pub and started to tell us about his ferreting days, he said he used to have the biggest ferret anyone had ever seen and I asked him how big it was nose to tail. He put his hands on the bar to illustrate the size and I said “I’ve got one that’ll beat that” and, reaching inside my shirt, brought Winnie out and laid it across his hands!
Winnie was full of liver and half asleep and displayed no aggression at all but Old Sid went rigid! It was quite evident he had never held a ferret in his life. What was even more interesting was the reaction of every one else in the bar. The landlady, Lily, jumped on a chair and started screaming. Every woman in the bar tried to get in the ladies toilet at once and most of the blokes were laughing. There were glasses flying all over the place and you could safely say we had caused a stir! The upshot was we were barred for about four weeks and it cost me 30/- in breakages!
I told you we made our own entertainment and I don't know what you think but it didn't get much more interesting than that adventure! I'm enjoying this subject too much.... More next week.
Ted and Maurice Nuttall in the Dog in 1977. Maurice drove for Wilds for many years.
