You can’t live in the mountains for 8 years without having some interaction with foxes. Mostly, I just see them when driving home as they are crossing the road, usually at night. I am going to share my fox stories with you and there will be two videos. Be sure to watch them both. They are short.
Foxes are little predators and I certainly don’t want a fox to attack my cats or rabbits. When I lived in Fallbrook, the predator to fear was the coyote. Strangely, there are no coyotes in my area, so the fox has this niche all to himself. Foxes come out mostly at night, so I have no idea if they are coming around my home because I don’t see them.
One of the first times I got to see a fox up close was when Freya, my wild kitty, got out of the backyard for the third time. I had a small mammal cage to catch her in. I set the cage just outside the backyard gate. I baited it with a whole can of cat food. I knew she would be wary of the cage since I had caught her in it already two times, and just dry food wouldn’t be so tempting. I covered the cage with a tarp so she wouldn’t get wet if it rained. I set the trap and went to bed.
I woke up early in the morning, around 4:00 A.M. I thought I had better go out to see if I caught Freya. She has the ugliest meow when she is afraid, that I have ever heard. As I approached the cage, I called, “Freya!” expecting to hear her ugly screeching. It was quiet. I heard movement in the cage. I opened the gate, went through, and closed it behind me. I noticed that Columbus, my large black and white cat, had come out into the yard. I lifted the tarp carefully to see what I caught. I was very careful in case it was a skunk. To my surprise, it was a large grey fox. Its body filled the cage. It was so flexible that it was able to turn and face me. Its eyes looked up at me and seemed to say, “Have mercy upon me.” It didn’t look at all vicious and I wondered what it would do if I put my hand by the cage. I put the back of my hand to the cage and the fox leaned forward to smell my hand. The eyes were full of emotion and innocence. I so longed to photograph this fox, but I thought it would be cruel to keep it in that cage any longer. I had no idea how long it had been cramped in there. At least it had a nice meal and had eaten all the cat food. It was not my intention to catch a fox.
Whenever something scares my cats, they take off running for the house. I couldn’t understand why Columbus was not afraid to be outside and watching this fox. I decided to release the fox right away. I believe my light source was a headlamp. I opened the cage door and out came the fox. It ran along the backyard fence and I was amazed to see Columbus run along the fence with him. What was that all about? Were they friends? Nah. Couldn’t be. It concerned me that the fox might be like coyotes and was being friendly with my cats to trick them.
Sometime later, my youngest cat at the time, Bobby, got out of the backyard at night. I woke up in the night and found that he wasn’t in the house or backyard. I had my headlamp on again and I ran out the front of the house calling, “Bobby, Bobby!” Then I saw something amazing down the driveway in the light of my headlamp. There were two figures of different sizes that came out of the brush and they appeared to be playing as if friends. The smaller figure ran towards me. It was Bobby. He had been playing with a fox. Was it the same one that I caught in the cage? I have no idea. I reprimanded Bobby for playing with a fox that could turn on him and eat him. Was I being prejudiced? Maybe they really were friends.
Once Bobby tasted freedom, he kept finding ways to get out. He was missing and a neighbor reported he saw a cat hit by a car. I didn’t want to believe it was Bobby, so I kept hoping he would come home. One night as I was driving home and was approaching my mailbox, I saw something sitting in the middle of the road. Bobby! As I hit my break, I saw how wrong I was. It was a young fox just sitting dazed in the road. As I stopped, it came to itself and became frightened and I watched as it dragged its hind legs behind it and made its way to the side of the road. It had been hit by a car and it may have just happened. I needed to help it. All I had was a towel. That would be great protection from getting bitten. I was wearing some flimsy flats and I had to follow that fox as it fled down a small embankment. It was not my idea of fun to go down the embankment in those shoes. I easily caught up to the fox. I dropped the towel on the fox and it screamed in fear as if I was going to kill it. I think I scruffed it by the neck and supported the legs and took it to my truck. I put it in the back which already had plastic on the floor. Then, I drove to my driveway and on to the house. I found a box for it and got it out of the truck and put it in the box. I put the fox in my motorhome. I offered the fox some water and it responded with, “Ruff grrrr!. I offered it some food and got the same response. I jumped a little each time. It was very fearful and not interested in eating. I left it in the motorhome and went to bed.
In the morning, I did a search on my phone for an animal rescue group in my area. The woman I contacted didn’t want to come out to get the fox. She wanted me to bring it to her and meet up in Redding. “But,” I told her worriedly, “the fox got out of the box. I will have to put it back in the box.” I was being a chicken. I had been a vet tech and dealt with ferocious dogs and cats. I admitted this to her and said that I could do this. This time, I put on some gloves. The fox was behind a chair, so I moved the chair. I put a towel over the fox and scruffed it and easily picked it up supporting the back legs carefully and placed it back in the box. It didn’t even struggle. I carried the box to my truck and that is when I took the following picture and video.
When you watch the video, realize that I was so hoping to get help for the fox. I knew he was dragging his legs and probably broke his back. Surely they would do all that they could to help him. That is what I hoped.
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I drove the little fox in a box to Redding and met the animal rescue woman in a supermarket parking lot. She took the fox in the box and that was that. I hoped for the best. She said she would let me know what happened. She called me the next day to say that the fox had a broken back and was euthenized. I was at work and felt really sad. I was working with a really nice lady patient and she said that I had saved the fox from a slow death of pain and starvation. That helped me to feel a little better even though I had wanted the fox to live.
Did you ever wonder why we keep people alive that break their backs and don’t help animals that break their backs? Some animals, like dachshunds do end up with back problems and get paralyzed in the hind legs. Special assistive devices are made for them to carry the hind legs and they have wheels so the dog can run with the front legs and pull the rest of the body along on the wheels. This wouldn’t work with a wild animal. It would be too fearful and may bite a person putting it on the device. Also, in people, bowel and bladder functions are lost with some spinal injuries and the person has to be helped with enemas to clean out the bowels. I don’t know what was the full extent of the fox’s diagnosis, but if it couldn’t stand to defecate or urinate, it wouldn’t have much of a life. And who would want to give a fox a daily enema? So, they did the merciful thing for the fox. It still made me feel very sad. Be careful with your driving when living in the country. Remember that at night, animals are more active and could jump out in front of you at any time, so drive slowly and watch carefully.
The last fox story took place in the spring of 2018. My next story took place in the summer of 2020. I had just driven in my driveway and I saw a fox by my trash can. It went up the embankment. I got out of my truck and saw that it was still there. I started videoing it and talking to it as if it knew English. Right? Don’t we do the same with our pets? It would be like talking English to a person that only speaks Spanish and expecting him to understand our every word. And yes, it would be nice to be able to talk with the animals like Dr. Dolittle. Talking to a fox isn’t something that can happen every day. They are shy and often run away. I was especially blessed to have this encounter with a fox. If you would like to click the like button on this video, I will also share its link button below the video.