R and I went to Stratford this morning, where the rain had stopped but the river was out of its banks, and wandered up the north side of the river into town. There wasn’t much going on, especially bird-wise, but I was standing by the Bancroft Basin photographing one of the half-dozen Black-headed Gulls that hadn’t taken themselves off to somewhere nicer, when R, who’d walked on ahead of me, began shouting my name and making frantic arm gestures – obviously suggesting that I should get a shift on and catch him up. “There was a guy over there walking a pair of ferrets,” he said when I arrived. “But you’ve missed him.”
I hadn’t missed him, it turned out, but he was surrounded by such a crowd of people, all wanting to pet the ferrets, that all three of them were nearly invisible in the crush. He had a small pet carrier with both doors removed, which he was wearing strapped to his back like a backpack, and the Ferrets, which were restrained by collars and leads, were able to climb all over him and each other, and get in and out of the carrier at will. Between their almost relentless activity, the crowd, the stroking hands appearing from all directions, and a stream of irritated passers-by trying to fight their way past the scene, for a while I found it impossible to get a sight line on either animal.
Eventually though, the crowd thinned, and at that point the young man noticed me. “Do you mind?” I asked him, holding up the camera, and he smiled and said, “Not at all.” The Ferrets, I have to say, were still not especially cooperative, but while I was dodging around trying to get one or other of them in shot, their owner and I had an interesting chat. He told me that they’re service animals, which he was given about a year ago as part of a mental health project, because he suffers from depression and social anxiety. When I asked if they’d helped him he laughed and said that they very definitely had, because people now approach him all the time, but wanting to talk to the Ferrets rather than to him, and the fact that they’re focusing on the animals and asking questions about them makes it easier for him to interact. He told me the names of both Ferrets, but I’m afraid I can only remember that of the animal in my second photo, who’s called Sulk. She is half pure white strain and half albino, whereas her half-sister in the main image, who’s named after a shape-shifting deity, I think, is pure white.
After talking Ferrets for a while we had a further little chat about cameras and photography – he also being a Canon user – before I said goodbye and went off in search of R and a cup of coffee. I was really glad to have met him, and cheered to hear that this kind of innovative project can make such a positive difference to someone’s life.
R: L2, C1, D9.
