Friday, May. 30, 2008 - 9:38 p.m.
The Foxes *********** Every few years the population of rabbits explodes - you see bunnies everywhere and they destroy everybodys gardens and eat young fruit trees in winter Everytime you walk through a meadow' you will flush out a dozen rabbots of all sizes they breed like, well rabbits nature always balances out no matter what Greenpeace says the cosmic response to so many rabbits is a huge upswing in the number of foxes around here I saw several foxes last summer end where Jinky was mistaken for a trained fox him being so red and agile and small This spring there are a lot of foxes around the Ministry of Natural Resources has been in town trapping foxes looking for signs of canine rabies but to determine this' the foxes have to be killed and their brains sliced up Infected or not they must die to determine a diagnosis Since the middle of April I see foxes everyday just walking around as if they were on their way shopping or something as inocuous I know of at last three dens of baby foxes in town where people protect them from the government euthanasia squads and sometimes feed the nursing mother on the sly- they never interfere with her activities - hunting rabbits - slinking around in the shadows like Jews amongst the Nazis Tonight a neibour came over and whispered to me that if i am quick and absoplutely quiet I can zip over to a certain location and peek into her friends backyard from begind a garden shed and view four baby foxes at play as they wrestle at the mouth of their drainage pipe den, carefully hidden by reeds - at dusk while their mother Vixen is away briefly catching rabbits And I did go over at dusk and sat as silent and still as if I was dead & to the best of my ability pretending i was just not there and i did see four baby foxes emmerge from their drainage pipe den and wrestle It was wonderful to see them watch me and decide i was no threat and then they began to wrestle in absolute silence it was eerie how quiet they were not one leaf or a blade of grass betrayed a single decibel I could hear my heart beat my breath swirl in my nostrils my saliva pop gently in my teeth as the baby foxes wrestled in supernatural silence they were perfect and as I looked closely I could see each one was coloured slightly different: a white tipped tial here a rosy muzzle there black mask here front legs white there and when part of the wrestle sequence broke into good natured mock humping i was able to distinguish there were two brother humpers and two sisters humpees and when they all broke up and ran around is silky silence i swear i could sence the somewhat exagerated girlish movements of the sisters and the gruffer boy poses of the brothers i know cats are definately boys and girls their demeanor clearly defines their gender as surely as it does amongst people and here was the basic viva la difference factor being displayed in wild foxes I saw one fox spot a squirrel as the others played and transmit the information to the others with a knowing nod and glance in a mere second the squirrels location was shared knowledge with her fox family
I can appreciate that if a fox decided to hunt Taser it would be a three second swoop and one red kitten would be gone never to be seen again. I will always have to watch him especially at dusk when the wild beings are hunting Once coyotes were my biggest worry as stealers of cats i can add foxes to the list now and maybe someday: Wolverines It was wonderful to see the wild foxes at play at dusk on a perfect May evening I will go again tomorrow to see them be wonderful afain' I just hope they don't eat my kitten
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