Topic: The fox in my garden

[Hyacinth]

This morning I saw a fox. He was a young fox and chubby with red-brown coat glistening in the morning sunlight. He'd come through the gappy hawthorn hedges from down the road and probably lives in the woods over the road. He seemed to know the garden well (hope he'd found the dead rat I'd discovered a week ago which I'd left for the crows to dispose of while I was out. On my return the rat had gone......this foxy chappie's certainly well fed, so fingers crossed...).....anyway, in time he went to his 'usual' gap in the hedge to the up-road neighbour's garden & sniffed around there......then made his way to their other garden boundary. This is heavily shrubbed, but hides a high chain-link fence....without any hesitation he decided where to cross, climbed the shrub then dropped down into the next garden. I just wondered why I was so amazed.....nothing for a cat, of course, but foxes are of the canine family. Lots of dogs do agility trials and go through tunnels and climb over fences after all....

Just hope that he stays around and stays healthy. A few years ago there was mange about and to see our then current fox gradually lose his fur, get thin and miserable, and then eventually die, was hard. I remember that a neighbour and I were feeding him a homeopathic remedy for mange sprinkled on jam sandwiches for him - with the sanches cut in triangles and the crusts cut off ;D - didn't save him, tho. :'(

[Columbus]

Hi Alishka,  :D

Any pics ?? Pretty please  ;D

I`m so jealous. I hear rumours of foxes but I never see a fox.

Col

[Curryandchips]

Our plots have foxes all over, with dens on the disused plots, and they are not shy. The whole area is like a nature sanctuary, so many different birds, ducks, heron, squirrels, frogs, never seen a hedgehog though.

[Hyacinth]

Hi Alishka,  :D

Any pics ?? Pretty please  ;D

I`m so jealous. I hear rumours of foxes but I never see a fox.

Col

Aw...sorry Col, the only pix you're gonna get from me are old-fashioned word ones. (the only time I take pix is when I buy a throwaway camera for a client to show the work in progress - and that's only successful when the d**n flash works >:() Urban foxes are so common tho in suburbs? It's just such a shame that this beautiful young one might not be so beautiful in a few months time - believe their life span's only 2-something years? And then there's disease.  The sound of a vixen in heat at night is terrifying the first time you hear it - like a baby being tortured :'(

[dandelion]

I often see foxes at the allotment.  Recently I saw 2 playing together. They don't seem phased by people at all. Once I got as close as 5 meters.
Some of them look like they have mange though, poor things :(.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I used to see foxes all the time round the site, till we had an epidemic of mange a few years ago. I've only seen a few since, but their numbers do seem to be creeping up slowly.

[Sketty]

Part of my job is to control foxes - they are a major problem. They do, however, deserve respect. :(

[Tora]

There is a fox usually under a brumble bush next to my plot. I'm hoping nobody takes on the plot where the bush is located so that the fox can have some peace.

I know they can cause problems in gardens/allotments but I still love them.  :) Some years ago I had a few foxes coming to my garden making a huge hole! ;D 
I did notice some of them had a severe case of mange. I contacted a fox rescue and they sent me a bottle of homeopathy medication. I put a few drops of it on honey sandwiches I made for them every day. They certainly loved the treat and the mange was cleared after a few months. :)

[kitty]

last night at around 8.30 i was doing the Frost Protection at kitty towers(air frost predicted and i wanted to save me blossom)and a fox came thru tnext doors hedge and trotted into the wheat field that backs onto our garden..a beautiful big dogfox-as surprised to see me stood there as i was him!about 15-20 ft away....not quite as close as the hare that popped up 6 ft away from me as i was watching a barn owl hunting-forgot all about watching the bird when hare was stood looking at me-and lolloped around in front of me for a good five minutes....if i never see another hare that'll do me as the experiance of a lifetime-why people travel to the blinkin serengeti i dont know! ::)
kitty

[Hyacinth]

I don't think I've ever seen a hare, tho for a time when I lived in Glos there were loads of rabbits around (and mostly around my spinach as I recall)..to see hares box must be a wonderful thing...

Back to foxes and the mange. Robert has mentioned the epidemic there was in S.Birmingham and surrounds a few  years ago - this was when our then visiting fox contracted it. It was the time of that Rolf Harrison's Animal Hospital TV show - you know, the caring RSPCA one? Well, our local RSPCA didn't want to know about this poor sick bald fox, and neither did the PDSA..it was only when a neighbour found an Association which then gave us the homeopathic medicine and later a trap to try to catch the poor animal, that we had any help at all. 

Spect it was because there were no TV cameras around.... >:(

[kitty]

when we lived in the city a few years ago neighbours a few doors away did a moonlight and left billy the doberman in the high walled yard....bark bark bark BARK! >:( ::)
everyone knew they'd abandoned him on wednesday so we called the rspca and told them the situation and they said....
'if no-ones been back to feed him by next tuesday call us again and we'll see what we can do'
 :-\ :-\ :-\
needless to say-he was fed  by throwing food over the wall(well-would you have climbed into HIS garden?no....'xactly!)
until a consortium of neighbours came up with a cunning plan to spring him and he now lives happily in cornwall...
i wasnt involved with the springing-i have been held hostage by two slavering doberpeople and they are not my favourite doggie.
anyway-re;billy-alls well that ends well as will says...but i dont have a lot of faith in the rspca..... :(

[David R]

there's a big healthy fox at the end of my neighbours garden (the den entrance is clearly visible), and he or she is very tame. Foxy comes into the garden during broad daylight when we are cooking, as it smells the food. Occasionally put scraps out, but the negative side is that foxy leaves little foxy smelly presents all over the garden - not good