Seems last year's grey foxes have moved on.
How the fox ears look. From very close. Much too close. This week's Farm Side, should you choose to read it on Friday, deals with a visiting....or maybe permanent resident....red fox. He ate my yellow rooster, incidentally my favorite alarm clock, just the other day.
I had no more than finished the column and gone about other work when there he was again. Same place, next to the old horse trailer.
Different day.
He was gone as quickly as he appeared, but later when I went prowling with the camera, I heard the pea fowl alarming. They can only see outdoors through a window under the woodshed so I crept up there.
Quieter than I thought I could because I walked right up to the darned fox. Maybe six feet away.
He was snuggled down between Liz's bales of straw, staring at my poor beauties and making them honk. I raised the camera to take a shot (wishing that I had shells for my .22 and had brought that instead) but before I could click he was gone.
Bold bugger coming out in daylight like that.
Light as a puff of wind. Thistledown. Feather fluff. Air.
I am not pleased with him although I don't think he can get into the coop. No wonder the last old hen is being so careful when she comes out of wherever she is hiding.
Meanwhile, Nick, who was loose in the house, along with the cat, and who had come in for some bragging in the same column because of his general good behavior, had just cleaned the litter box for me.
What a lovely dog! I am all in favor of a working dog keeping busy but......damn, just damn
By the way, fox ears are fuzzy, black and gold, with little white spots to break up the outline.
There was a family o' foxes that used to bark at me during deer season. Okay, the kits barked - Mom hung well back, probably recognizing the rifle as a bad thing (for her).
ReplyDeleteA couple of years ago I had a family of gray foxes living under the back half of the Bolt Hole's garage. That section had a raised wooden floor while the front was jsut dirt and gravel tha tserved as a litter box for five or six kits plus their parents.
ReplyDeleteWhile it was annoying to have to shovel out the garage ever third or fourth day, I didn't have to worry about red squirrels or mice all summer. If I happened to trap any mice inside, their little bodies were gone as soon as I threw them out the door. Same for any red squirrels I happened to shoot around the yard during the day.
Luckily, I didn't have any chickens, ducks, geese, or pea hens to worry about.
Wow. it IS a jungle out there.
ReplyDeleteOf course, you do realize, that I'M about 60 miles from that grizzly, bobcat etc. that some maniac loosed on Ohio?
(Can't believe that great shot )
PS (Let me get this right. NIck the dog . . . ate the cat's litter . . . .? Ummm Ummm Yummy! :)
YOU WERE CLOSE!!!! I have been close, not with a camera or a gun, but with a rake. The momma fox came out of no where, grabbed one of my hens that was pecking and scrachting right by me as I was racking. I tried throwing the rake at it (you know how it went) and running. But four legs can out-run two legs any day and you had age on top of the two legs....
ReplyDeleteLinda
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We don't have the grays or swift fox here but every once in a while we'll see a red one. About Nick....you know if it's good enough to bury.....it's good enough to eat;)
ReplyDeleteAs you know we lost all our chickens to one. We have learned to keep them in the hen house now.
ReplyDeleteREv. Paul, I enjoyed watching our greys, mom and pups, until one night they took out all my guinea fowl. Now it is all out war....despite the whole cuteness factor.
ReplyDeleteJoated, they are interesting critters....but....I do love my silly pea birds and even though they are inside a coop behind two doors I don't trust the varmints much
Cathy, that is some deal, about the wild animals being let loose. I hope it has as happy an ending as is possible considering the circumstances. Scary stuff.
Linda, you are brave! I couldn't believe how boldly this guy came back, just as if it had no fear of us at all.
Linda, appears Nick shares your opinion on that topic. lol, and of course he took up that delicate and delightful habit just after I was praising what a smart guy he is..in print...for all to see. Darn him
Lisa, most of ours are in too, just the two...now one...old birds outdoors. I don't even trust doors and coops though. Coyotes tore open a wooden door on me once and killed fifty birds in a night. Put me right out of the purebred show chicken business and I never went back to it. Just too discouraging.
Yeah, damn is right. Caught our poodles dining on the same before. *shudder*
ReplyDeleteDani, and now that he has figured out where the litter box is....
ReplyDelete