Fluffy Retreat

21/08/2024

For those following my progress. I have recovered from my psoas injury and back to covering more mileage no2, adding 84.23km this week. At the end of week 7 I am now 50% complete!

Walks this week have included a lovely walk with a friend around Swindon, getting very lost in Savernake Forest and covering way more miles than I planned trying to find my way out! And my favourite walk along the tow path. But I've also been out on the bike a few times this week and I am getting better at it... still wary of cycling on roads though.

If you haven't sponsored me yet... there's still time! Either by donating directly through PayPal [email protected] or through the donate button on this page.

I will provide an update on the current sponsor money raised at the end of next week.

21/08/2024

Not sure who they are from,but thank you for the probiotics! We use these for any ferret recovering from ill health, emaciation, or on meds x

19/08/2024

And lastly this morning wrote have Amunet. She is a very sweet older jill (at least 6 years old) again had been badly neglected, was emaciated, filthy and covered in battle wounds. Her scars on her head and neck are taking a while to heal, but are looking good now. She is just awaiting vaccination next week and then she has a wonderful new home lined up, providing she is happy in the environment. I'm sure she will be! As its a very lovely life x

Hopefully she will be even more white and clean by the time she goes ! The filth is taking a long time to get out of her coat.

19/08/2024

Hathor is a wonderful little jill. She has been through the wars. Left in season to the point her hair had fallen out along her back end and head. She was emaciated, neglected and bore many many battle wounds from being attacked by her cage mates. She was not expected to survive.. but deserved the chance to try.

Today she is happy and healthy and playing so well. But she is scared by her experiences and therefore doesn't really want to have other ferrets near her. Her hair is finally growing back in and she is now just awaiting her vaccination next week. She still panics if you pick her up without her knowing its you as she's scared of being attacked.

She has a wonderful new home lined up. Where she will have her own space so she doesn't have to interact with other ferrets, but the option is there for her to have friends in the future if her mental scars heal.

19/08/2024

All ferret owning knitters and crocheters will be familiar with ferrets obsession of wearing the "ball band".

Here you have Nepit modelling this years fashion label...

19/08/2024

It doesn't matter what time you get your ferrets up for playtimes... they are always bouncing within seconds! I wish I had that energy when I woke up! (Or actually that level of energy any time of the day lol)

Couldn't sleep, so 5am playtimes it is (amd clearly I'm not really awake as forgot to attach video first time - now attached! )

17/08/2024

Found Heyford (not Hereford)

14/08/2024

Wednesday vet update...

These two ladies came into us a while ago in an extremely neglected condition. The albino, Hathor, was so heavily in season she had lost the hair on her back end and had no hair around her head, she was emaciated and so very ill that she was seen by the emergency vet on the way home. The DEW, Amunet, was filthy, extremely emaciated and lethargic. Both jills were covered in wounds from being attacked by other ferrets in the group.

Today both jills have recovered really well, you can see where the hair is growing back in nice and healthy and white. They are both a really good weight and the risks from being left in season, finally seem to be behind them. So they both went in for neutering today and both went well. These photos were taken as soon as we arrived home from surgery today, so they were both still a little d***y!

Both have homes lined up where they will have their own spaces and not have to fear being attacked or neglected ever again. So fingers crossed the settle well when they go ❤️

14/08/2024

Very quick update on the North Coast 500 challenge.. today marks the end of week 6 and tonight I hit 40% of the challenge complete! That's just over 200 miles in 6 weeks! Just another 300 miles to go lol

This week has been a challenge as I have suffered an injury to my psoas flexor, which is limiting my movement a bit. But I am still plodding on!

This week's walks included a fast walk along the Bath skyline /Claverton Down circular on Friday evening, a cycle ride to Calne (first time on a bike outdoors for many many years, which ended with me walking like bambi for the evening! ), a lovely but very hot walk along the Avebury, Ridgeway, West Kennet Long Barrow circular on Sunday, and tonight a lovely walk around Green Lane and Biss woods in Trowbridge, among other smaller walks.

For those who haven't seen this before, I (Pam) am walking /cycling 500 miles in less than 161 days. I picked that time frame as it means covering an average of 5km every day for that period. I am hoping to finish this in considerably shorter time... and of course I'm trying to raise funds for the rescue by doing so. If you haven't already sponsored and would like to support the rescue you can either donate through Facebook on this post, or directly to our PayPal [email protected] (please put a note of NC500 on the payments I know its for this when it comes to accounting.)

11/08/2024

Late post, but a huge thank you to our Pr crew who attended https://www.facebook.com/GloucestershireVintageandCountryExtravaganza last weekend.

And to every one who bet on the races, played the tombola and the huge generousity in the collecting tins! The final count was £547.70

We aren't able to do many events this year and this is such a massive boost, especially while we are still working through getting the hoard neutered and healthy for adoption.

11/08/2024

Today has been very hot after a little while of cooler weather. If you suspect heatstroke, don't try to treat it at home yourself, do the steps in the poster and get the ferret to an emergency vet immediately.

11/08/2024

Matilda belonged to a long time adopter of Fluffy Retreat ferrets and after her death they donated an incredible sum I'm her memory, to the ferrets here.

WARNING: Matilda’s story. Long post. This story does not have a happy ending. Please do not read on on if you think you may be affected.

On 11th January 2023, at the end of our first night starting our new life in Australia we received the devastating news that our beautiful black greyhound, Matilda, had died in Changi Airport on her way to us. She was a fully vet checked, healthy five year old with no underlying health issues and deemed “fit to fly”.

It was suspected heat stroke but we had to wait another 4 months for the results of the post mortem confirming this.

The short version of events is that Matilda was left in her crate at Changi airport, in stressful conditions without water or air conditioning, for several hours as the temperatures rose to 29C and she died from heatstroke at the airport as a result. We believe her water was not filled on departure and that her death was the result of avoidable and inexcusable human error on the part of Singapore Airlines and their ground staff.

It is difficult to express the pain, guilt and grief of the last 18 months and to condense all the information we have received into words that do justice to the beautiful and gentle girl no longer in our family. We miss her every single day, she is there in our hearts, in our thoughts and even after 18 months we are still very much grieving for her.

We know that - like us - you will want to take your pets with you if you are moving but we hope that by telling our story we can show that the risks are rare but painfully real and that you will have no way to force acknowledgement of responsibility or liability as the law holds very little value on the life of your pet or the emotional distress caused. If you are thinking of flying your pets, please do your research and think very carefully if they will be transiting through hot and humid conditions they are not accustomed to.

We have recently become foster carers for the Lost Dogs Home here in Australia to try to help fill the missing piece of our hearts. The refund we received from the pet travel company was donated to the rescue charities that our own pets came from. If you would like to donate to any of these charities we feel that helping them is the most fitting way to remember our beautiful Matilda. Otherwise volunteer somewhere or rescue and love an animal of your own.

Please share her story. Our hope is to help someone, somewhere be better informed and get your beloved pets back to you safely.

Our GoFundMe to support animal charities - https://www.gofundme.com/f/matildas-memory

UK Charities:
Bristol DAWG - Greyhound & Lurcher Rescue - donate here on JustGiving
Anna’s Cat Rescue - donate here!
Cats in Distress - donate here on Enthuse
Fluffy Retreat - Ferret Rescue - donate via their shop

Australian Charities:
The Lost Dogs Home - Dog and Cat Rescue - donate here through Raisely

Detailed version:

Matilda arrived at Singapore Airport at 7:40am and was unloaded onto the tarmac shortly afterwards. She had no water in her water bowls (2 x 3litres) and there is no record of whether her bowls were correctly filled before departure. In spite of temperatures reaching 28C to 29C, and the actual perceived temperature being more like 33/34C, she was not given any water at this point. She did not arrive at the air conditioned quarantine facility, CAPQ, until 9:50 when she was found in heat distress, prostrate and panting in her crate. A vet was called at 10am and she died 20 minutes later.

Details and confirmation of events have been extremely slow to fully emerge, requiring months of back and forth emails with the pet travel company to tease information from Singapore Airlines who have stalled and almost completely failed to engage with their own apparently derisory investigation and flawed processes.

All the information we have received indicates that this was an avoidable death and that small changes may have led to a different outcome. Yet Singapore Airline’s initial response appears to be a single 5 sentence email, on the 17th February stating that their investigation - carried out before the post mortem results were available - completely exonerated them. To quote:

“We have conducted a thorough investigation into this unfortunate incident and confirm that all details of the transport were carried out in accordance to the IATA [sic] regulations for the transport of animals.”

Aside from failing to demonstrate any investigation took place there has been no information on why Matilda had no water on arrival, why she was not provided with water after arrival, why she spent almost 2 hours on the tarmac where the perceived temperature will have been considerably higher than the peak of 29C recorded and why none of the “trained handlers” spotted her condition or lack of water until she arrived at CAPQ and it was already too late.

In July we learnt that Singapore Airlines were no longer receiving transiting pets into their facilities. We do not know if this was as a direct result of what happened to Matilda or some other reason. It is our understanding that reputable pet travel companies are no longer using Singapore as a result and use other routes instead.

Although the pet travel company we used have been responsive to emails and attempted to provide a conduit between us and Singapore Airlines we have no evidence that the escalation that was promised within Singapore Airlines actually occurred and the representation the pet travel company initially said they could provide never materialised.

The law does not assign value to our pets when they travel. In legal terms they are cargo and only have any monetary value due to their breed or costs to buy. There is no allowance for the emotional place and love - or anguish - they have in our families.

There is no legal requirement to report pet deaths within the industry.

The pet travel company did refund our travel costs for Matilda but they never offered us any compensation for our loss or directly acknowledged any responsibility.

For their part, Singapore Airlines offered a derisory £1000 settlement but this would have restricted our ability to tell our story. We declined their offer. They said:

“As you are hopefully aware from our previous communications with [pet travel company], we and our handling agent SATS (a separate company) have conducted an investigation into Matilda’s death. Despite our best endeavours, we have unfortunately been unable to ascertain the precise circumstances which resulted in Matilda’s water bowl being dry and ultimately her unfortunate passing.”

They have reported the following changes to their procedures:

“We have also taken the necessary strict measures with SATS to ensure that similar incidents do not recur - notably to ensure that after loading at the point of departure, all animals will be re-examined to ensure they are not in stress and to ensure that their water bowl(s) are full before the aircraft doors are closed. Finally, we have conducted a comprehensive review of our procedures for the transportation of animals and have enhanced our handling procedures with the following additional steps while animals are in transit in SIN:

We require shippers to install additional water bottle on the outside of the cage.
Pets on pallets must have a space of at least 5 inches around them to improve air flow.
Pets on pallets must be loaded such that they face outside and that would make it easier for staff to top up water.”

We have requested on several occasions for Singapore Airlines to provide details of their investigation and they have explicitly refused to provide any information:

“Unfortunately we will not be providing any investigation paperwork, but please rest assured that we have investigated fully and taken rectification measures as previously outlined.”

We feel insulted by the derisory amount that a huge company like Singapore Airlines would pay for taking the life of our beautiful girl, and, we would never agree to sign anything that would prevent us from telling our story. We wish to warn others that if, god forbid, the worst happens, no one will really be held accountable.

Whilst we acknowledge that the other pets on that flight made the journey safely, including our own two cats, we strongly believe that Matilda had no water on her flight - that her water was never filled on departure - that she had none on arrival and was left without air conditioning for over 2 hours in 29C temperatures. There are not enough words to convey how this has affected our family. We are traumatised by what has happened to Matilda and what she went through. She is constantly on our minds and we struggle to come to terms with our loss, not least of all because it was avoidable. She was so sweet and gentle and did not deserve to die in this horrible way, afraid, alone, with no one who loved her by her side.

Our wish is not to stop others that are going through or embarking on their own journey. We recognise that most beloved pets will arrive safely. For us, the worst did happen and after months of emails we have come the conclusion that the best way for us to move forward is to tell our story and maybe it will help someone, somewhere, to perhaps ask more questions than we did. We blindly, stupidly, put our faith in what we believed to be professionals. Please think very hard about the route your pet will take. Ask questions, chose carefully and, if possible, try to plan travel for the time of year that will be least dangerous to your pets.

- Matilda’s family

In memory of our beautiful greyhound Matilda, who died in transit to join us i… Julie Hay needs your support for Support animal charities in memory of Matilda

09/08/2024

Oops forgot to post a NC500 challenge update on Wednesday! But at the close of play Wednesday, after a lovely walk around the Bath skyline circular with Riley I had hit 275.01km (that's 170.88 miles) so that's more than a 3rd of the distance walked already and that was the end of week 5! and I got to see a more sociable heron too :)

05/08/2024

Monday vet update

Nepit and Neith went in for neutering today. All went well and they are wanting to bounce tonight (but not allowed yet!)

Isis and Besna moved in with the kits last night as stand in mums and are coping really well with the bouncy kits.

04/08/2024

Thank you to every one who responded to our wishlist. We received another cat tree on Friday, which has gone in with the flower power crew x

04/08/2024

Ferret found
Date:03.08.2024
Location: Castle combe
This is a very distinctive ferret for a number of reasons, so the real owner will be able to identify it easily with a description.
Ferret is currently unwell and is under investigation for reasons.

If you believe this is your ferret, please message 07724473474.

04/08/2024

It's been a hugely busy weekend again. Harriet and Minerva were adopted out together. These us went to his new home today, immediately play bouncing with his new family and then crashed out together in the hammock, like they've always been together. For a kit, he was nit phased at all!

Our wonderful volunteer carpenter, Jemma, has been so busy today. One of the hutch fronts on the Bond Mansion needed maintenance, but in the end it was easier for her to replace the whole front with heavier duty frame and mesh, so that's another reinforced hutch for naughties lol

As someone pointed out today, that hutch is becoming the hutch equivalent of "Trigger's broom" ill just leave that comment there to see how many followers we have that get that lol

The catchpen for the end shed also needed major work. Our gardens slope here and the neighbours are lower down, so stones slip. In this case it was the whole slab area that was slipping. So Jemma took the whole thing apart and lifted all the slabs, dug out the stones and sand and then dug in a frame to try to hold the slabs in place. It was a much bigger, longer job than originally thought, but the result looks fab!

Jemma never charges us for her time, despite spending whole days here working for us, so we only pay for the base materials. This has meant huge savings for the rescue when it comes to maintenance, and we really appreciate all she does.

While we had stopped for lunch the doorbell went. Someone had found a stray and didn't know what to do with it, despite the adoptions this weekend, it hasn't freed up any cages, so we had to play a little bit of ferret tetris to find a spot for this emergency. We really are bursting at the seams right now, but most of the ferrets in right now are not yet ready for rehoming. Hopefully we can get them all rehabbed and rehomed soon.

03/08/2024

Last night the kits had their first full manicure and every single one of them was so well behaved! Where did my naughty kits go ? Or do they just save naughtiness for playtimes and adoptions lol

01/08/2024

I have just been sent the most amazing video of Wunwun settled into his new home and bouncing like a lunatic! He is so happy there. Has made my heart swell today

01/08/2024

With everything going on in the rescue yesterday I forgot to post end of week 4 results for this challenge... despite the challenges of the weather and so many ferrets in the rescue I managed another 48.72km this week (30.27 miles). Bringing the total at the end of week 4 to 219.07km (136.12 miles!) Only another 364 miles to go... and 19 weeks left!

Hey lovely people! Pam is doing a thing! Walking (and possibly a bit of cycling) of the North Coast 500 virtual challenge! It is a route of 500 miles (or 806km) and Pam can only include outdoor walks or bike rides (or if the weather is awful then some treadmill to keep on top of the challenge). This challenge is set to 161 days, but for Pam to complete it this means she has to walk on average 5km every single day! Or 35km a week! Pam of course hopes to complete it in way less time than this, but given the length, it will be demanding on Pam both in energy and time commitment.

Many of you know Pam well and know that she struggles with pain and health problems, but Pam is on a mission to raise money for the rescue (and get a bit fitter along the way!)

Would you be so kind to sponsor Pam? Keep her motivated! You can either donate through this post, or directly through the rescues PayPal at [email protected] (but if you do it direct to PayPal please put a comment /note on your payment to say its North Coast 500 so Pam can have a tally of sponsors!

Once a week Pam will share progress on here and hopefully updates of lots of money raised along the way too!

If you live locally to the rescue and fancy joining Pam on one of her walks, drop us a message! Pam is also looking for ideas for new walks in the area (including national trust sites) to keep her motivated, especially if they are nice walks with lots of wildlife!

31/07/2024

Wednesdays vet update - warning it's not a happy one...

As some of you know we took in a load of ferrets almost 2 weeks ago who were neglected and in quite a state. Some had to see the emergency vets and some have mental and physical scars from fighting in their groups for so long. We took the most poorly and most difficult ones. When we went back to help move the rest to new places, there were two that I just wasn't happy with because something seemed a bit off with them and I decided they needed to come back to the rescue as well for monitoring amd treatment. Today one of the Jill's went in for surgery and they found such a mess inside, including involvement of the bladder. There was nothing that could be done for her and she must have been suffering as that would have been so painful, so we let her pass peacefully without bringing her round from the anesthetic.

This is one of the worst parts of rescue, sometimes you can only help stop their pain. We still have a few jills that we are worried about what they are going to find when they go in for surgery, but are working hard to get them well enough to undergo surgery in the first place.

Sekhmet also went in today for routine neutering and microchipping. She took a while to come round properly after the surgery, but when offered special recovery food, she quickly recovered !

27/07/2024

We have some wonderful supporters. We've received more merlin ferret food today, so that's 4 bags in total, plus the salmon treats, cat tree and 2 packs of emeraid for the poorly girls. We've also had some unexpected donations through the webshop, thank you all for your support x

24/07/2024

The kits love the new cat tree. This one is prefect for them as its a bit lower level, so they can get to all the levels

24/07/2024

At the end of week 3 I'm not as far ahead as I would like, but making up the buffer in the first two weeks certainly came in useful this week. It was very difficult to get out and walk with everything going on at the rescue. I only managed to increase my distance by 36km, which is still just above the target. But now I really need to start pushing again to build that buffer back up!

Hey lovely people! Pam is doing a thing! Walking (and possibly a bit of cycling) of the North Coast 500 virtual challenge! It is a route of 500 miles (or 806km) and Pam can only include outdoor walks or bike rides (or if the weather is awful then some treadmill to keep on top of the challenge). This challenge is set to 161 days, but for Pam to complete it this means she has to walk on average 5km every single day! Or 35km a week! Pam of course hopes to complete it in way less time than this, but given the length, it will be demanding on Pam both in energy and time commitment.

Many of you know Pam well and know that she struggles with pain and health problems, but Pam is on a mission to raise money for the rescue (and get a bit fitter along the way!)

Would you be so kind to sponsor Pam? Keep her motivated! You can either donate through this post, or directly through the rescues PayPal at [email protected] (but if you do it direct to PayPal please put a comment /note on your payment to say its North Coast 500 so Pam can have a tally of sponsors!

Once a week Pam will share progress on here and hopefully updates of lots of money raised along the way too!

If you live locally to the rescue and fancy joining Pam on one of her walks, drop us a message! Pam is also looking for ideas for new walks in the area (including national trust sites) to keep her motivated, especially if they are nice walks with lots of wildlife!

24/07/2024

Wednesday update...

I can't even begin to describe how hectic the last 6 days have been! We ended up taking in 9 ferrets who have been neglected and a lot have psychological issues at the moment as well as physical ailments. Plus assisting with getting the rest sorted and into a safe home. It's taking a huge amount of my time at the moment to sift through all the chips and errors with their registrations, as well the admin side we have to do for our records! Not to mention the intensive care some of them have needed.

The emergency vets were so wonderful with us last week and I cannot thank them enough for fitting us in on the way home from collecting!

Today we took 6 ferrets in for vaccinations and we have booked in neuterings and vaccinations for some of the new ones (so this is going to be a really expensive month!). Our vets have, as always been amazing, and slotted in our most urgent ones for neutering and a back up plan for the rest.

Some of the items from our wishlist have already arrived!

Thank you for the food, salmon treats and the cat tree!

On Sunday we microchipped all nine of the kits and I have to say they were so much better at being chipped than they were for their vaccinations! But on Tuesday they decided they are now nine weeks old and really should start biting... ah wonderful! But they are going to start going to new homes very soon, albeit a bit slower than we normally rehome kits as their mum is still very fond of them! (normally by this age mums are done and happy to see them go lol)

We are very overcapacity right now and I am run ragged, so please do be patient if you message or email, as I am running out of hours in the day way too quickly right now and still dealing with my own health issues.

Oh another piece of news... how could I forget... remember Wunwun the polecat? he's found a home! And he's already playing and bouncing! Makes me so happy

20/07/2024

Hi lovely facebook people. We have had a bit of an influx of ferrets again and have been playing that old game of ferret tetris to fit them in!

We are in need of a few items, but the biggest need right now is the cat trees and the merlin food, if anyone is feeling generous! It doesn't have to be the cat trees on the wish list, but ones similar to this. Need 3 in total.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/1253OOPKF5AAG?ref_=wl_share

The address is hidden but you should still be able to send directly without seeing the address. However the postal address is 13 Danvers Mead, Chippenham. SN15 3TP

Thank you all

17/07/2024

Squishy delivery!

Came home today to find a huge parcel had arrived, as I racked my brain trying to work out what I'd ordered and then a mini panic when I saw the box said raw foods! (Because I have no freezer room) realised when I went to lift it that it definitely was not meat lol it was packed full with yarns for making the rescue toys!

Unfortunately I cannot see anything to say who it is from, but thank you so much! This will keep me busy for a while

17/07/2024

Wednesdays update...

So yesterday we took the nine kits in for their vaccinations. Some were good, some were very unhappy about it lol and last night's playtime they all showed us just how annoyed they were with us! We've hit the proper nip training stage now!

Today their mum, Harriet went in for neutering. All went well. But she was very pleased to see her babies afterwards. That's the longest she has been away from them.

We've had a few ferrets come in this week and potentially a few more coming in tomorrow. But I'm drowning in admit at the moment, so won't be able to gdtphotos sorted until I get all the end of financial year work finalised!

14/07/2024

Time for an update video on mum and babies! They are getting so big now and starting to get much more confident with exploring. They are in for their vaccinations this week and then hopefully ready to start going to their née homes in 2 weeks