March 29th, 1895 - Podmore Zoo

"Will you stop?" Sloane admonished Stephen with an undertone of, this is all your fault. "You cannot behave, so I got stuck on emu walking duties, don't start with me." He was big and fast, but Sloane had a good hold on him and she had worked with him long enough to know when he was about to pull something stupid.

He had yet to try her though, so that was good. "I should talk Mr. Podmore into getting you some friends, maybe that would help." Then they could chase each other around their pen and she wouldn't be the one looking a little ridiculous with an emu on a leash, taking a long lap around the zoo at large. The warmer weather and sunshine had brought people out to the zoo today, which was good, she always thought the winters were a little too quiet. Sloane was better with people than she had been in the past, so didn't mind as much when the zoo was busy.

She stopped every once in a while to let some children pet the emu, occupying him by giving him treats from her pocket to keep him from being a pest. The last set of children moved on and Sloane pulled Stephen toward the muggle entrance back toward his pen. When he realized where they were going he put the brakes on and Sloane, who hadn't noticed at first, kept walking until she was abruptly halted by the tension on the lead. "Oh for the love of Merlin, don't start!" She huffed, staring the emu down.

A chuckle nearby had her flushing. She forgot it probably wasn't too normal to talk to creatures, even though she often spoke more to them than people most days.

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Jack had a block of free time so he had opted to spend some of it checking out the zoo in Irvingly. He had been there time and again for events and social outings but this time, he was solo in his venture. It was a nice, warm day with the promise of Spring. He was minding his business when the sight of an emu being walked caught his attention.

He recognized the walker vaguely. He had been a year behind one of the young womans brothers in school and was in the Quidditch sphere with another of hers. "Troublemaker, is he?" Jack asked in amusement when he realized she had heard his amused chuckle.

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"Stubborn is more like it." Sloane stopped tugging on the lead long enough to fix Stephen with a stare. "Despite being mostly feathers, especially for brains, he can be positively impossible to move when he doesn't want to to go." Her sigh was exasperated, especially as Stephen took a few steps toward the gentleman, ostensibly in the wrong direction from where she was trying to get him go. After a quick, deep breath, trying to dispel the frustration, she put on her better customer-service face. "This is Stephen by the way, he's an emu." Some people weren't familiar with the the large birds and she always felt the need to explain.

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Jack let out another chuckle as the young woman stared down the emu. He was further amused when it seemed the emu had decided to come in his direction. "I've come across emus in some of my travels,", Jack said with a chuckle. Mostly during a vacation he had taken with some friends with their usual upper class pseudo-frat boy shenanigans.

"Why is his name Stephen? Any particular reason?" He asked out curiosity. Animals with human names were amusing in his opinion. His personal owl was called Conroy for that very reason.

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It was always hard to tell if people would be familiar with the creatures in her care, so Sloane often tried to make sure she explained, in case people were interested. "Oh, I'm a little jealous." Sloane was hoping that once she got further into her apprenticeship she might be able to do some traveling. It would be nice to get out of Hogsmeade for a little while.

"You know, I'm not sure, he came with it." He was the product of a confiscation for mistreatment. "I always find it funny when the animals have people names though." Her own rat had once been called Barnabas after all. She hadn't really named Splash on her own, otherwise it would have been something similar.

Stephen wandered closer and Sloane held onto the lead tightly, hoping he wasn't about to be an unpredictable prick. "Careful, he's not always the best behaved." She warned. For all he was bigger than her, Sloane could usually coax him to do what she wanted.

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