# Mundane pointless cool fox sighting **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 26, 2015, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-pointless-cool-fox-sighting/713688 "2015-02-26T18:14:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2015, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-pointless-cool-fox-sighting/713688/1 "2015-02-26T18:14:26Z")
Yesterday I saw a fox in the neighbor’s back yard. It was scrabbling at the ground, and several times went way up on its hind legs and sort of pounced back down. I’m guessing it was trying to get at a mouse that was under the crusted snow. I got to watch it for a while before it moved off. I’ve seen foxes in our neighborhood occasionally, but never had the opportunity to watch one do that sort of thing before. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2015, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-pointless-cool-fox-sighting/713688/2 "2015-02-26T18:26:07Z")
I tend to gravitate to a lot of the nature shows when channel surfing and have seen exactly what you describe documented several times on film. IIRC the fox would look intently at the snow, his head cocking one way or another so as to best orient his ears towards the hidden critter, jump high and come down on just his front legs so that his full body weight would cause him to crash through and gain quick surprise. How cool to see it in person though. ---
**Author:** ![Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cabin_fever_1/32/2908_2.png) [@Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabin_Fever_1)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-pointless-cool-fox-sighting/713688/3 "2015-02-28T01:50:20Z")
> [@cjepson](#): > > Yesterday I saw a fox in the neighbor’s back yard. It was scrabbling at the ground, and several times went way up on its hind legs and sort of pounced back down. I’m guessing it was trying to get at a mouse that was under the crusted snow. I got to watch it for a while before it moved off. I’ve seen foxes in our neighborhood occasionally, but never had the opportunity to watch one do that sort of thing before. Cool! What part of the world are you in? Just curious as foxes are pretty rare around here. ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-pointless-cool-fox-sighting/713688/4 "2015-02-28T02:00:08Z")
What did it say? ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-pointless-cool-fox-sighting/713688/5 "2015-02-28T02:37:55Z")
Red fox, or gray? I love foxes. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cabin_fever_1/32/2908_2.png) [@Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabin_Fever_1)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-pointless-cool-fox-sighting/713688/6 "2015-02-28T02:46:09Z")
In lieu of a response from the OP, I posit that this alleged fox has sneaked into Red Riding Hood’s grandma’s house and caused mayhem. We should call out the 3 bears to help investigate. Just sayin’. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-pointless-cool-fox-sighting/713688/7 "2015-02-28T02:51:02Z")
Foxes are beautiful (and while I know rationally that there is no such thing as luck, cool things seem to happen after I’ve seen one). OP? Play the lottery! (…and toss me some money if you win, please.) ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-pointless-cool-fox-sighting/713688/8 "2015-02-28T05:14:50Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > Red fox, or gray? I love foxes. 🙂 I’m actually not sure… it was kind of silhouetted. It was pretty big; I suppose it could even have been an Eastern coyote, although the ears and tail looked too big in relation to the body. It had long legs. I live outside of Philadelphia, which is in the ranges of both kinds of fox and the coyote. ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2015, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-pointless-cool-fox-sighting/713688/9 "2015-03-01T00:16:56Z")
I’ve seen coyotes doing that: [https://plus.google.com/photos/103353440908712928462/albums/5332900265681579793/5660551508114975042?banner=pwa&pid=5660551508114975042&oid=103353440908712928462](https://plus.google.com/photos/103353440908712928462/albums/5332900265681579793/5660551508114975042?banner=pwa&pid=5660551508114975042&oid=103353440908712928462) I guess foxes are becoming more suburban. A vixen raised a couple kits behind my mother’s church in Lexington, KY. That would have been unheard of 25 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2015, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-pointless-cool-fox-sighting/713688/10 "2015-03-01T03:10:24Z")
Last autumn, I walked out of my apartment and a fox was standing in the middle of the parking lot, about ten feet away. I stopped. He looked at me, I looked at him. About a minute later, he turned around and trotted toward the wooded area. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2015, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-pointless-cool-fox-sighting/713688/11 "2015-03-01T03:35:23Z")
I live in a Los Angeles suburb, miles from any kind of real open area. We have small pockets of open areas such as municipal airports, golf courses, graveyards etc that support small fox populations but this requires them to make frequent forays into the local neighborhoods and they very often become semi tame to the point where they will take food from your hand or tossed out a short distance. ``` A friend has a photo album full of pics of foxes and other urban wild life eating and interacting together in her yard, her cat seems to fit right in with them. ``` ---
**Author:** ![Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cabin_fever_1/32/2908_2.png) [@Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabin_Fever_1)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2015, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-pointless-cool-fox-sighting/713688/12 "2015-03-01T04:29:23Z")
> [@GrumpyBunny](#): > > Last autumn, I walked out of my apartment and a fox was standing in the middle of the parking lot, about ten feet away. I stopped. He looked at me, I looked at him. About a minute later, he turned around and trotted toward the wooded area. I am sure he was hoping for the keys to your Lexus - you bastard you. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-pointless-cool-fox-sighting/713688/13 "2015-03-02T13:27:49Z")
A number of years ago I was up on the AK North Slope and spent a sunny Spring afternoon off reading outside on a large frost heave. The permafrost buckles the soil into large ridges and mounds, some about the size of a VW Bug. As I sat on top I suddenly saw a little Arctic Fox kit stick his head out from a previously unseen hole, what turned out to be a den entrance. Then there was another and another. Before long I was witness to 5 or 6 cute little kits that wanted nothing more than to play outside in the sun, at first eyeing me cautiously but gradually sucumming to youthful exuberance. They made paying attention to my reading difficult and it was indeed a priviledge to witness close up and first hand such marvelous creatures in their element. I never did see the parents so not sure if they were away hunting or choosing to remain hidden. Looking back I lament that the cell phone camera was still years away. The wonderful images are still vivid but impossible to share.