We got a call in January about a fox that was stuck on a pontoon at Littlehampton Harbour; the phone call was from the new Harbour Master at the Conservancy called Gareth. For those of you that don’t know what a pontoon is , and I also learnt that this day, it is the floating walk way next to where the boats and yachts moor so that you climb down a metal ladder and walk on it to reach your boat without getting your feet wet. As the tide comes in it floats up as well.
So Simon and I arrived at the scene with catching pole and cage and looked over the very high wall to see a very alert fox looking up at us curled into a sleeping position. We attracted a fair number of interests from passersby while we decided what to do. Simon knowing foxes well said that once he descended the ladder near him, he would do two things; either throws himself into the sea and possibly drowns or head off along the pontoon to the end and drop into the mud flats which were feet deep and could swallow him up.
So I hit on the bright idea of asking Derek Purchase who lived nearby and was a swan expert but knew all the tides times and info on the harbour for assisted help and also our long time friend Glenn who lived on his yacht at the harbour which was close nearby. Both came to assist us and we all looked over the wall while the fox looked up at us.
We all came to the conclusion that a boat was needed just in case the fox decided to swim for it, and if it got stuck in the mud flats then I sort of demanded Simon to the rescue, whatever I was not happy with this rescue, and decided to walk the very long way to the Harbour Masters Office to ask him to get a boat out to assist us leaving all three men to ponder the situation.
Arriving at the office, Gareth was very helpful and said he would phone the boats yard to get the boat out to help, so I followed him up the stairs to the office which looked out on to the Harbour and found myself in a room full of telescopes , cameras and huge TV screens. At that moment my phone rang and Simon said ‘Hold everything, Glenn had climbed down the ladder and the fox had got up walked along to the end of the pontoon and was now hugging the sea wall walking on the mud flats’. Gareth heard the call it was on loudspeaker and he swung the telescope in that direction and onto the CCTV screen came our fox slowly walking amongst the mud and then up the slipway past the cafe and out to where houses and gardens were. I watched every move with my heart in my mouth thankful for this technology. Simon couldn’t believe I was watching him from so far away.
I have never been as relieved in my life as I had visions of everything going wrong, the scenario of a fox drowning at sea, or of Simon being hauled out of the mud flats by rope.
By Jaine Wild