Well obviously he’s not really a pet. But I call him my pet because he loves to hang out in my yard. I named him Simon, but I have no idea why.
I am the only one one my block without dogs, so my yard is a highway for wildlife. I also am awake most nights, and will often drive to get something late, which is when I started noticing him. He helps keep my yard vermin free too, which I appreciate. A couple months ago I posted about how he would come into my house to say hello, then go back to hunting. Well shortly after that he introduced me to his girlfriend(ie. he stopped to look at me, then kind of gestured to her in a nugde nugde kind of way, making it clear he was getting some.)
I am assuming she is now somewhere taking care of babies, because lately he has been hunting every night, and sometimes into the day. With the frazzled look of a dad working to hard.
Anyway, as I just went out to my car, I saw him jogging through my yard. suddenly, without even breaking stride he jumped toward a tree. It wasn’t like a cat jumping, where he had to crouch back on his haunches, it was more superman like where he was just suddenly heading away from the earth. I saw movement from that tree to another one. He kind of bounced off the first tree at about 7 feet high, and went even higher toward the other tree. He was hidden behind a branch for a millisecond, then completed his arc toward the ground. He had a squirrel in his mouth perfectly grabbed by the neck, which he must have snapped through instantly, cause by the time he hit the ground it wasn’t moving. He gave me a hello look, and headed back from where he came, in his cocky little jog.
He is just so damn cool, I should set up a fox cam.
http://www.floodlight-findings.com/2redfox/redfox.html
This has some cool red fox pictures for anybody who hasn’t one, even some cute widdle pups. I have always loved wolves, but I doubt people would take kindly to wolves running around the town, so my neighborhood foxes are the best possible substitute.
When I lived in Wyoming a big red fox would come every night, sit outside our window and look in. In the morning you could see his butt print in the snow.
I adore foxes. Every year we vacation at the same house in Colorado. About three years ago we noticed some foxes, and now look forward to seeing them. This past year there were a pair (I assume).
Hey, Wolfman I visited an environmental research center that had a fox that got a little too friendly (some kids were playing baseball, he charged out onto the field, grabbed the ball, and ran off with it.)
They were able to get some kind of oral rabies vaccine that they put in balls of ground beef. They probably ended up “vaccinating” every fox and raccoon in the area, they put so many of the meatballs out. If it ever becomes an issue, you could look into it.
BTW while I was at the research center I did get to see the fox. It was cool. Definitely not tame, but not particularly intimidated by people either. You could understand why they wanted to be sure he got a dose of vaccination meds – he liked to watch kids play and would get awfully close to the playing field for a wild critter.
foxes are the coolest. I live in a townhouse development, and one winter evening I saw one go trotting right up the middle of the street. Glanced at me briefly and went on his merry way.
A fox used to come up to these big glass patio doors I have and “knock” on them, so that I would get up and feed him!
A couple of times he would take food from my hand, but usually he was a bit too skittish for that. He was quite happy to sit and eat just a few feet from me though.
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As a student, I lived in a townhouse complex. The rental office had a patio with glass doors. There was a mallard duck that would come up to the doors, bang on them with his beak, and quack loudly until they brought him a bucket of water in which he would sit all day.
He would leave only to feed elsewhere and at night to roost, but he had to have his bucket of water. He was always really pissed if it wasn’t there with fresh water every morning.
We were used to seeing him, but passers-by would do double takes when they saw the duck floating in the bucket.
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The only place I’ve ever seen foxes was Cumberland Lake St. Resort Park in Kentucky. People would go out behind the dining hall after dinner with food scraps and toss food to the wild animals, which included skunks, woodchucks, raccoons, and gray foxes. The foxes were about the size of a large house cat, had immaculately groomed fur, and never took their eyes off the people even when they were picking up a food scrap.
I’ve never seen the red ones in the wild, nor have I seen the swift foxes that supposedly live in New Mexico. We’ve got a lot of coyotes here and I heard they sometimes eat foxes, so the I guess ones out here must have to be especially wary.
That is so cool! Do you have pictures? I would love to see that. Mallards live in my pool. They’ve been coming every spring and staying through the summer for the past 3 years. There’s currently a nest under some bushes back there. The drake wanders onto the deck pretty often and will eat out of my hand. He let me pet him once, but the hen(?) is very wary of people. I’ve named them Agnes and Wendell. Wendell once chased a feral cat off my property by flapping up to its face and (I think) biting it on the head. I love those ducks.
Wolfman, you must set up this fox cam. I would add it to my favorites list for sure.
I live in Denver. I’m glad other people like foxes as much as me. They are just so curious, and expressive. And they arn’t very skittish usually. like when you walk up to a neighbors cat that doesn’t know you, it will dive behind something and run away. But a wild fox will just jog a little bit away, and look at you again, when you get to close. But they’ll usually let you get damn close.
I was watching a nature show of foxes… I got the distinct impression that foxes were produced as the result of a lonely dog hooking up with a lonely cat. They are doggy, and yet they do kitty things like pouncing and maintaining excellent hair-dos.
I love foxes, too. We don’t have them in my neighborhood, though. Not enough (any) undeveloped land for them. But they’re in the surrounding areas. Occasionally, I’ll catch a glimpse of one along the side of the highway, as it darts back into the tall grass or woods.
When I went to Prince Edward Island, a few years ago, they were everywhere. One time we saw a mother and two half-grown kits, playing and hunting in a field. We stopped and watched them until they wandered out of sight after about half an hour. That was extremely cool! Such beautiful, elegant animals.
