Shep needs to get out more!

Now Shep has been down the local, for the first time I may add since the serious bout of whisky flu' which I suffered away back in July. I have concluded I really need to get out more. I am often told that I live in my own little world and I am beginning to believe that....

For weeks I have been in the company of sheep and like minded individuals, the crack has revolved around what we do, the trade, the weather, the future of farming, implications of electronic tagging and all manner of rural and farming crack.

But tonight I have been educated. In all honesty I thought it was one of those piss take moments. Oh how I love the cleverness of the internet! A quick google search and I found I wasn't getting the wool pulled over my eyes, oh no! what I was being told down the pub was in fact true.

Clothing for ferrets! Yep, you heard right, not just clothing I may add, all manner of things; from dresses, T-shirts, bathrobes, shampoos, medication, bedding, you name it, it seems you can get it for a ferret. There again, mebbes anyone reading this already has a life out there in the big wide world and knows such things. I will admit I knew you could get designer wear for dogs but ferrets? I ask you - has the world gone mad?

I have ferrets. have had ferrets since I was a kid. They live in a hutch and bedding consists of barley straw and shavings. They even have a collar - a battery operated tracking collar for fear they pop down a hole and don't return in a hurry, gives me a sound idea where to start digging.

Y'see my ferrets are like my dogs, they work for a living. I try to keep them comfortable and happy and when time allows we set off, ferrets and I along with a bag full of nets and we set about catching rabbits. From what I've gathered on the internet tonight this isn't normal, ferrets are in actual fact a designer accessory with designer accessories attached!

I said earlier that I'm often told I live in my own little world, well, I know I've had a couple of nips of grouse but my wits are still about me (spelling ain't that bad so must be fairly sober) and I can't help but conclude that if the 'real' world consists of people owning ferrets as a design accessory and dressing them in a wardrobe greater than my own I truly think I will remain where I am - in my 'own little world' - I feel safe here, it seems a normal world, a world where ferrets work for a living, get dropped in the water trough on a hot day in the summer for a swim, snuggle up in a deep bed of barley straw and run around on shavings, get fed the same dry food as the dogs and occasionally get a fresh rabbit for a treat. Do I really need to join the 'real' world?