Baby Fox! (this time with pictures)

[altivo]

	Please don't eat me! 19-JUN-2007: Here's what Gary found when he went out to feed sheep and horses this morning. The sheep pen fence had become an unintentional trap, and the little vixen we've been seeing, usually with her mom, had a hind leg tangled in it. Mom was nowhere to be seen, but we suspect she was watching just the same.
	What is that thing? The baby was terrified, but still curious. The camera made her suspicious but I did manage to get a couple of shots that weren't blurred. No, we didn't leave her hanging just so I could shoot photos. Gary was getting leather gloves and a wire cutter while I did this. I wouldn't let him touch her without the gloves in case she tried to bite. Who could blame her?
	Hole in the fence We had to cut the fence cords to get her free. She was wound up so tightly there was no chance of unwinding her without all of us being injured in the struggle. Fortunately, we were able to make sure there were no wires or plastic still caught on her leg before letting her go. The skin was abraded but not broken, and she favored the leg as she scampered off but did not run on three legs as she would if it were broken. Not once did she try to bite either of us, though she struggled to pull away the entire time. The fence is a total loss. Fortunately we have a spare we can replace it with.

Postscript: About an hour later Gary saw the mom looking at the hole in the fence, so evidently the two have not found each other yet. However, when the baby ran off she headed for the log pile where they've been hanging out, and I expect all will be well. There was another dead chicken just a few feet from the spot where we untangled the kit. We don't know whose it was, because the color was unlike any we've seen at the neighbors. Gary tossed it back by the logpile as well. There was also an egg shell lying there. I can just picture mom dragging the chicken and baby carrying the egg in her mouth. Evidently something startled them and they dropped stuff and ran, but the kit tangled herself in the fence (she apparently tried to crawl through the mesh rather than jump it or go around it.)

Comments

[woodychitwn.livejournal.com]

Aww... Poor adorable thing. Hope they find each other a'ight.

[shadow-stallion.livejournal.com]

I'm actually surprised that it didn't try and biye you guys when you were trying to free it. Well done though. :)

[atomicat.livejournal.com]

Aiee! *dies of kyooot!*

[songdogmi.livejournal.com]

D'awww.... you've not only gotten cute photos but you've done a good deed for animal-kind.

Aren't people beginning to miss their chickens yet?

[altivo.livejournal.com]

The chicken has now been removed from where Gary put it. Hoofies crossed here.

I wouldn't think of actually putting food out for them. But I won't take away what they managed to steal for themselves either. I keep hoping they'll take to catching mice. We have lots to spare.

[duskwuff.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm going to have to go with "dies of kyooot" as well.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I was a little surprised too, though at the time I was more worried about how much damage she had done to her leg and paw in struggling. She just kept trying to get away, scrabbling on the ground with her front paws. Not much vocal noise either, except for a soft chittering.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Better that than rabies or distemper. I'm really glad we didn't get bit, that would have complicated matters tremendously.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

No idea on the chickens. We haven't heard a word. Maybe the foxen will start stealing the neighbors' kids next. Might not be a bad thing, actually...

I hope this doesn't frighten them away completely, as I rather enjoy seeing them now and then.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Oh, and as for the "good deed" part, I dunno. You might want to ask a chicken for their opinion on that.

[scruff.livejournal.com]

Nice horse :)

[deffox]

Hopefully she learned a lesson about going through that style of fence.

At least it sounds like she is alright. Too bad about losing the fence though.

Nice photos too.

[daikitsune.livejournal.com]

My policy on chickens is eat first, ask questions later. ;)

[corelog.livejournal.com]

Cute thing! And well done you two on getting her out okay. :) *snuggles*

[axiomaxiom.livejournal.com]

A hero to fox kind!

--Axiom

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I try. ;D

[altivo.livejournal.com]

We'll probably be able to salvage some portion of the fence. Unfortunately, they aren't made to be cut and repaired.

I hope she learned something, but in her frightened state, I'm not sure. Gary was speculating briefly on the possibility of having a pet fox, but I think that's illegal in Illinois. People did it in Michigan, though. When I was a vet student we used to see one in the clinic now and then for rabies vaccination.

[hellmutt.livejournal.com]

Thirded.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Cute indeed. Too bad she was so badly frightened.

Happy birthday, by the way. ;)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Just doing my job here. XD

[kakoukorakos.livejournal.com]

So cute!!! ^-^

Probably won't be around long if they're getting at someone's chickens though. Maybe the kit was just practicing the social engineering technique to overload farmers with ky00t and get them to cut access holes in their own fences. :P

[corelog.livejournal.com]

D'awwww, thankee! :) And thanks for the text message last night, too!

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Tsk. Belonging to a prey species myself, you may imagine I take some exception to that.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Heh. I forgot about the time difference. Since I was going to bed when I sent it, I just assumed you'd not see it until morning. ;p

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I don't have much sympathy for people who keep poultry and don't plan ahead well enough to lock them up at night. We've known for millennia that it is necessary to do that. I know that the neighbors on one side of use (the crazy Brits) just let their chickens run loose all the time in the summer, so they really can't complain when some don't come back.

Still, you're right, it's a risk. Frankly, I'd rather have the fox than the chickens on my property. Horse Doc was here this morning to give vaccinations and she said the local fox population is definitely up this year for unknown reasons.

[songdogmi.livejournal.com]

Probably because people keep feeding 'em chickens. :)

[megadog.livejournal.com]

Heh - I've also had A Fox in my woods, along with a cluster of cubs.... been leaving bits of roadkill out for them if only to stop them having to go onto the highway to scavenge it for themselves.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yeh, we realized (too late) that we could have given them the baby bunnies we found suffocated inside that new bale of hay last week.

[zenicurean.livejournal.com]

The baby fox is simply awesome. Thanks for posting these, I think they're excellent. Who couldn't love foxes? (Er, well, except for people who keep small edible-looking animals.) In fact, I might be inspired to go scouting for wildlife when I take my next visit back north - not that I expect to find much. But I hear my old man saw another wood grouse or something.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well, I keep small edible-looking animals. But I view it as MY responsibility to keep them safe from predators by keeping the predators away, not by exterminating everything on four paws (or two wings.) Unfortunately, most people think the other way around.

[zenicurean.livejournal.com]

I definitely think you have that the right way around. I'm a bit peeved about this tendency to work things out by clearing away every living thing with teeth in a mile radius. (Tangentially, I get miffed about cats being put and walked around in leashes, even if it's rationally speaking done for their own safety.)

[kyhwana.livejournal.com]

Well, ask a cow how it feels after you save a (meat eating) human from something. ;)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Heh. Well, even speaking as a mostly non-meat eating human, I have trouble being too sympathetic to chickens and turkeys. Even for the proverbial bird-brain, they are on the dim end of the range.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Awww she looked so scared, I hope she's okay with her mother now :) Well done hoss on freeing her without any damage to the kit.

Let us know the moment you see them together again. :)
(claps his paws)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Not yet, but I'll let you know.

[dragon-moon.livejournal.com]

Awww, she's adorable! I'm so glad you were able to get her out of the fence, and that she seemed not to be injured to any large degree. Good news. :o)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I just hope she learned enough not to make the same mistake again.

[rrwolf.livejournal.com]

Cute, but it will become a problem later. You might want to think about trapping both of them and moving them further out in the woods or down the road.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

That would be illegal, I'm sure. We aren't even supposed to chase raccoons away. Apparently there's a population peak of foxes this year. Our horse vet said so on Tuesday and the dogs' vet reiterated that yesterday. They are probably going to decline once the prey supply drops. We had a huge peak of squirrels, mice, and rabbits over the last year, and now the foxes and coyotes are taking advantage of it. We'll take precautions against damage to property or loss of domestic animals, and certainly won't be feeding the foxes ourselves, but at the moment I don't see any need to disturb them either.