Stock Photo - 1956 - 'Joe' Miss Hicks's pet mink is as playful as a kitten and he and his mistress like to have a romp together on the drawing room floor. Every Girl Likes Mink - But This One Prefers Them Alive: Every girl likes mink, and although Miss Nancy Hicks does too, unlike most girls she has enough mink to make her quite a member of coats - but they are all alive, at her father's mink farm at Totteridge Green, North London, Miss Hicks looks after 450 minks, and Its a whole time job for they need feeding twice a day. A male pelt earns about -8 at its winter thickness and a female -4. and it takes about 60 mink to make a coat. But its not really the pelts that make the money, it's the mink themselves which are sold for export. Nancy first became interested in mink, when at the age of fourteen and recovering from an illness, her father saw a mink farm on television and decided the fascinating creatures would soon out Nancy on the mend, so he bought her 30 as a gift. Now Nancy is 21 years old and for the past 3 years has been breeding and looking after the mink herself. One of the minks, Miss Hicks keeps as her own special pet, called 'Joe', he is 5 months old and she rescued him 'because he was so ugly'. 'Joe' goes everywhere with Miss Hicks at the end of a blue leash. (Credit Image: © Keystone Pictures USA/ZUMAPRESS.com)