The Sound Of Silence

Slience is what I would have loved at 3.30am as I was awoken at the Game Fair. Some noisy, drunken exhibitors were laughing, shouting and slamming van doors. Should I get out of a warm bed, get dressed and give them a piece of my mind? Then at 6am a skein of geese honked as they flew over. Should I get out of a warm bed, get dressed and take some snaps?

At 6.15 I got up with 15 minutes to spare before I needed to set up my display. I got to this pond just as the sun was rising. A few minutes of silence before the world woke up. Arriving back and unzipping our marquee, I stepped inside and realised I wasn't alone! I heard a scuffle and turned the camera back on in case the intruder poppped out from under the table covers rather than back outside. A cheeky blackbird maybe?

NO, A FERRET! Not even bothering to blip it, my no. 1 priority was to capture it (in the true sence of the word). A few minutes of "Who's a pretty critter?" and I had it in my arms. Now what? 3 hours work to do and not a ferret owner moving on the field yet. Ferret now has firm hold of my thumb with its teeth!

This is a working ferret not a family pet like this one.Wake The Man up quick! Empty a large plastic box, put on the lid and ask The Man what to do next. Put more heavy boxes on top and get on with display work. Eventually one of the Ferret Stands had a man at it who was prepared to take away my uninvited guest.

Now about those drunken louts! In conversation with the two nice gentlemen in the opposite marquee I found they were quite willing to own up to all the noise. They weren't drunk but had been disturbed in their tent by a ferret trying to get under their bedding and walking over their faces and biting them! Had I, in fact, gone out in the middle of the night I would have seen a young man out in his underpants trying to shoo a ferret away from their tent! What a blip I would have got in the beam of the security light!

The men spent the rest of the night in the van!