A fox for tea..

[5 shires]

1 hour ago, MattyF said:

Pics or it didn’t happen vesp... nice story though.

I thought he was going to tell us silky had turned up?

[MattyF]

Did think the same !

[Mark Bolam]

Canny story that Vesp, but it’s unusual behaviour.

Hope the little fella wasn’t ill.

[Gary Prentice]

Very unusual behaviour.

 

We have foxes visit every evening, the wife encourages them by feeding them in the belief that if they're well fed they don't bother the cats. She puts food in a little kennel outside the patio doors and it's not unusual for a fox to stand outside it barking at a cat who robbing 'his food'.

 

They are very cautious and timid, you can approach the door slowly and they stand and look at you, but sudden movements and they're away. If there's no food out in the evening when they come, they will peer through the glass and look in as if to remind you they're there.

 

The dogs don't seem to know what to make of them, they will sit inside, sometimes with a cat and watch them but not overly interested. They just seem to accept them coming and going. The cats don't so much and will chase them off now and again.

 

They've been around for several years now and it's nice to watch them growing up. When the cubs are born, the dog and vixen visit, grab as much food as they can carry and take it back to wherever they are, shuttling back and forth. Then they come back and feed themselves outside the door. We'll start to see the cubs a few weeks later chasing one another around the garden and watch them growing up. Last years cubs (two males and a female we think) are still around and look really well, good coats and well nourished (they should be on what they're fed)

 

 

 

[Rich Rule]

I honestly don't understand all this love for foxes.

 

They are a wild animal and will revert to their wild ways.  We used to have loads of city or 'crack' foxes in London.  They were bold as brass and would stand in the middle of the road as you were driving towards them.

 

I once watched a cub being fed a barbequed sausage by hand in our garden.  At first it looked like a nice scene then I reverted back to reality and in my mind remembered the devastation a fox will leave if they get in a chicken coup.

 

flea ridden, mangey, bloody animals.

[felixthelogchopper]

Was I the only one expecting a recipe?

[Gary Prentice]

I'm ambivalent Rich, having lived in urban and more rural environments. Nature is cruel and so are foxes, but I have a live and let live attitude now. I might be different if I kept hens or they were eating the cats, but I don't and they don't.

[Gary Prentice]

1 minute ago, felixthelogchopper said:

Was I the only one expecting a recipe?

Only you Felix.

[the village idiot]

52 minutes ago, Rich Rule said:

I honestly don't understand all this love for foxes.

 

They are a wild animal and will revert to their wild ways.  We used to have loads of city or 'crack' foxes in London.  They were bold as brass and would stand in the middle of the road as you were driving towards them.

 

I once watched a cub being fed a barbequed sausage by hand in our garden.  At first it looked like a nice scene then I reverted back to reality and in my mind remembered the devastation a fox will leave if they get in a chicken coup.

 

flea ridden, mangey, bloody animals.

If you really want to do justice to the 'crimes against chickens' issue you need to be talking about human beings, not foxes.

[benedmonds]

35 minutes ago, the village idiot said:

If you really want to do justice to the 'crimes against chickens' issue you need to be talking about human beings, not foxes.

If you take the biological view chickens have used humans to become the most successful bird species ever.