Wildlife

Not mine, unfortunately! I saw a fox on my street on the way home from work tonight - I was pretty excited. There's a small pond at the end of my street, about 3 blocks up from our house, down a small hill with lots of trees. S/he was sitting in the street. I saw something in my headlights and slowed down, and saw the fox! I'm thinking s/he was fairly young, because s/he wasn't very big. Hopefully s/he he won't sit in the street so much - someone might not be as careful as me!

When we lived in CA on the Oakland Navy Hospital Base (even though we were Air Force - long story) we fed a fox every evening for awhile. We were out in the front of our house, grilling, and had the cats (Allegro and Toccata at that time) out on leashes hanging out with us. We noticed that a little fox was sitting a few feet away, watching us. I put the cats inside, since they were curious, and went back outside. I opened up a couple cans of cat food and put them on a paper plate, and she thought that was pretty good. So every night for quite awhile, she'd come by for dinner - I bought canned dog food. If we were out, she'd be waiting for us. :-) We called her Zorro, which is Spanish for fox. Gorgeous creature!

Of course, we never tried to pet her, but she'd let us get fairly close and it was fun to watch her. She'd usually clean herself a little before sauntering down the street - almost as if she didn't want to eat and run. She limped a little, so I wondered if she had trouble catching anything while her foot hurt. After awhile we didn't see her as much, since I suppose her foot got better. She'd still drop by once inawhile for old times sake.

The bunnies and squirrels seem to be enjoying the garden - if I walk out there in the morning someone is usually there. I guess I'll have to spray some of the repellent and see what that does. I do like seeing them though - maybe I won't. We have one squirrel that likes to sit in the tree outside our bedroom (second floor) and laugh at the cats. The squirrel obviously knows they can't get out the window, and the cats do not appreciate that being rubbed in!

I like having critters around - I've always thought it was pretty arrogant for people to move into a wilder area and then complain that animals are around. They were there first - either leave their habitat alone or learn to live with them. It's not like we don't have plenty of places to live already!