Creating a Ruckus!

I'm an animal lover, well perhaps nature enthusiast might well be a better description. I've always loved being outdoors and as a child growing up I loved all the nature that lived around me, avidly watched 'Life on Earth' on BBC TV and always had a wistful Disney-esque hope that I could surround myself with animals that would feed out of my hand or not run away when I approached them. Living in the suburbs of London that only really limited me to sparrows, ducks and the neighbourhood cats which were willing to come close for a pat or food. Now that brings me onto the topic of pets. My parents weren't pet people, nonetheless, my elder brother's resourcefulness for 'not pets', meant we grew up with his small menagerie of frogs, toads, snakes and lizards and escaped crickets that would chirrup in his bedroom that were dinner for his 'not really pets'!

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Completed graphite and water colour pencil drawing.
Ruckus ferret sleeping © 2016 Angela Cutler

So now I have my own proper pets what did I choose? I don't remember where or why, but there has always been one animal that has fascinated me from the age of about 10. I must have seen it on TV and then there was a book in the local library which I looked at repeatedly. This animal was then certainly on the 'not really a pet' category as it was then the preserve of old men in flat caps 'up North'! However it captivated me with its cheeky bandit mask, slinky long body and intelligent beady eyes. Of course, it was a ferret and in those days they were a working animal and had a reputation for fierceness and being somewhat malodorous. People didn't keep them as pets, until much later when they did!

Paw detail.
Ruckus ferret sleeping © 2016 Angela Cutler