Some may remember this post I made recently about the rare sighting of a silver fox while I was out walking the puppy at night...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x9795366Last night we saw another one! This was definitely a different one because it was mostly black in color with very little silver (first time I saw one so dark). At first glance I thought it was a skunk and had already started to turn away to head for the hills at warp speed (no likey skunkies!). But then the fox turned and trotted through the low branches of a huge pine tree, and when I saw it from the side with it's huge bushy tail I knew what it was.
This is so exciting! Here I was all thrilled that I saw one just a couple of nights ago when you're lucky to ever see one at all, and I only have a very scant few times in all the years I've lived in this area. And here was another one just a couple of nights later!!! I was so tickled I could hardly contain myself, and puppy was giving me the fish eye wondering if he had inherited a fruitcake for a mommy.
A few minutes later as we continued on our way we ran into one of the regular red foxes trying to figure out how to climb into someone's garbage can at the curbside (today is trash day in our area and the first immediate area the trashmen hit really early in the morning so everyone puts their trash bins out at the curb the night before). In the last few weeks we usually see one of the red foxes when we're out at night, so they are quickly becoming not such a novelty.
About an hour later as we headed back home and went by the spot again where we saw the really dark colored silver fox puppy suddenly stopped dead in his tracks and was staring at something in that area where we had seen him. It's REALLY dark there since there's big trees that block out the moon and some jerk shot out the streetlight there, so I couldn't really see what it was he found so interesting. We were very close to that big pine tree that the fox had scurried under before, and I was looking and looking trying to see what puppy was so intently looking at when I suddenly saw the same fox standing right in front of the tree still as a statue just staring back at puppy. He wasn't even 10 paces away from us!!! I mean, he was RIGHT THERE! Puppy and fox stayed stock still just staring at each other for a good few minutes. It was soooo cool that I suddenly just needed to pee soooo bad! For the first time I could see a fox so close up and not only was he not running away it was one of the rare silver foxes! That's when I thought maybe it had rabies or something since they're normally sooooo shy and I just couldn't figure out why it was just standing there not a few feet away from us and not running away. I was getting a little nervous about what it might do, and I must have twitched or somehow communicated something to puppy because he broke eye contact with the fox and looked at me, and I quickly looked back at the fox, and it sat down and curled it's huge tail around its legs. Unbelievable how BIG their tails are! It looked like another fox lying down curled around his legs it was so huge. This seemed to excite puppy, and he started wagging his tail and took a step closer to it, and the fox jumped up and quick as a flash darted under the tree again.
This is the second time in just a few days that we've seen one of the normally ultra-shy silver foxes, and they both weren't immediately running away. I'm wondering if it's puppy that interests them enough to stick around. I can't imagine why though. I would have thought Boo (my last Akita) would have been more interesting to them because his coloring was similar and he was a sort of more of a slim streamlined Akita rather than the bulky bear-like ones like my first one and the one I have now. Boo would have been a bit more similar looking to the foxes than this new puppy is (and though he's a pup he's already over 60 lbs., so it's not his size that's similar, that's for sure). Maybe it's an attitude thing? Boo was just as interested in the foxes but I think he communicated a protection vibe that puppy doesn't seem to do yet, and maybe the foxes picked up on that?
This is just so odd, but it's soooo cool!
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
