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ARE YOU UP FERRET?

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7 May 2008

If you have ever walked around Southwark Park, or any park for that matter, you will be more than familiar with seeing owners taking their pets for a walk, writes Richard Benson...

But, for the last four years residents of SE16 have been casting their eyes over some slightly less familiar pets at the end of one owner's lead.

When Dave Watson, of Abbeyfield Road, Bermondsey, goes for a stroll he can often be seen with his three ferrets and two polecats. Dave explains how people just want to stroke the pets.

Guinness, Tonic, Polo, Chocolate and Baby are not the individual names of the members of a warped Spice Girls tribute band, but the names of five loved pets that Dave and his wife Irene, who claims the naming rights, consider part of the family. When asked to pick a favourite Dave chose Tonic, simply because it's the oldest, so old in fact that Dave is certain it has outlived the life expectancy of a ferret, which stands at six-eight years. Baby is the youngest at six months old.

Growing up with ferrets as pets in Kent has given Dave a unique understanding of the animals, even down to their individual diet preferences. Although the staple diet of ferret biscuits is paramount, all three ferrets are rather partial to the odd helping of stir fry turkey. "They don't like Hungarian turkey; they turn their noses up at that. They like British turkey," Dave proudly commented on St George's Day.

The couple first took in ferrets from the RSPA in four years ago. The Watson's were stricken with a plague of rats in their backyard that came from the neighboring churchyard.

With five new polecats in the offering, Dave and Irene talk of breeding the animals - to cover their upkeep.

Although ferrets are likely to have been considered domesticated pets for at least 2,500 years, their behavioral tendencies are not common knowledge. Dave said: "You've got to know how to handle them. Get a baby and handle it as much as you can; show it a lot of love and care."

If it wasn't already surprising enough to see a man walking a ferret, one of Dave's ferret's Tonic can sometimes be seen enjoying it's namesake in The Jolly Gardeners, on Rotherhithe New Road. Standing room isn't a concern for the fun-loving ferret either; a place on the landlord's shoulders is always available. But the 6am wakeup call that the animals give Dave and Irene by 'banging on their cages' is an ample antidote to any night in the pub.

Dave explains why a ferret or polecat the perfect pet: "What other animal would you suddenly find trying to run up your legs and be friends with you?"

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