I had a surprise companion on my morning walk yesterday.
It was this guy right here.
Ok, it wasn’t actually THIS particular fox, the fox I saw was running WAY to FAST for me to snap his photo.
Here’s how it all went down:
Delilah and I were heading back home on our morning walk yesterday. One our way down the street, we’d snuck one over on Bailey, the golden retriever who charges her e-fence and gets my heart started in the mornings.
We’d also managed to pass another small, white dog that was out on a lead in her front yard. In fact, I had taken a picture for a post I’m rolling about in my head.
As we headed up the hill, I saw something moving. It was running from the side of the house, on a path about 75 feet directly in front of us.
Delilah, as usual had her head down looking for food to snarf. So she didn’t see it.
As it crossed in front of us, I saw it was a fox, and a beautiful one at that. It didn’t slow down at all, didn’t stop to check us out, just crossed the road and kept on moving.
My immediate thought was, thank DOG that Delilah didn’t see it, and then my next, more important thought was, I wonder what’s chasing it to make it run so freaking fast?
I kept my eyes focused on the house and as we got close enough to look, I checked the yard to make sure there was nothing more threatening headed our way. Thankfully, there wasn’t.
As soon as we got to area the fox had crossed, Delilah’s head whipped up and she sniffed the air and then looked to her right, looking for that fox.
I said a quick thank you prayer that the fox was long gone. Told her it was gone, redirected her with a cookie and continued home with no further excitement.
As I was telling my mom about it she said, “Maybe the fox smelled you.”
I must have given her that, “Are you saying I smell?” look, because she quickly amended her statement to say, “Not like because you are smelly or anything, just you know, smelled human.”
Way to cover mom, way to cover.
What kind of wildlife crosses your path?
If you loved the photo of the fox, you can check out more of Harley’s photos on Flickr.
That’s so cool! I love foxes! We’ve come across deer, squirrels, bunnies and currently we have a cougar running around our neighborhood. I haven’t seen the cougar yet, though… and yes, I live in the city. We have no idea how it got here. One time we were driving in the mountains and we saw a badger. That was pretty cool!
I feel better now. We’ve seen a fox walking down our neighborhood street in the middle of the day a few times now. One morning Bailie and Mom were on their run about 2 miles from home when a fox came towards them on a street. It turned and sat down in a yard. They kept running, but Mom turned after about a block and was shocked to see the fox jogging right behind them. Bailie saw it and wanted to meet it. It was a scary thing for Mom as she didn’t know what to do. It was really early, no one was around, she had to pull all 40lbs of Bailie because she wanted to go to the fox. Finally, the fox stopped and sat down. A few days later we saw a fox on our morning walk very close to us, but he had a kill in his mouth and was on his way somewhere. Mom is scared a fox might go after Bailie. Bailie is bigger, but all the germs, fleas, diseases? Hopefully no more fox will be seen when we are on foot.
We had fox families around at our old house. They can be pretty ballsy. We once had one sitting outside the fenced in yard, in my garden, watching the dogs play ball! We often saw them strolling through the yard in the middle of the day, just outside the fence.
A friend also had a standoff with one when walking her dog. It sat right down in the road and wouldn’t move! She has a yorkie so of course that made her very nervous too…she ended up turning around and going back home.
I’ve never heard of one tangling with a dog, but I have heard you should worry about your outdoor cats if there are foxes around.
How cool! We haven’t seen a fox for ages. Used to have some that came in to one of the ponds and they were so much fun to watch.
We see deer all the time. We saw a fox I the field and he looked at us and I was concerned that he was going to engage Cocoa. Or the other way around, haha.
I love foxes! On walks I’ve come across kangaroos, a snake and a cute seal pup out sunbathing.
Sure glad D-Dog didn’t see Foxy!! But your mom was probably 100% spot-on! He probably did catch the unmistakable human scent. The only wildlife we see in the yard are squirrels and birdies. Unfortunately, any other wildlife we encounter around here is roadkill. 🙁
All we ever get is an occasional gopher in the yard. We trap them before they become cat or dog food.
How cool! I love foxes! Barley and I saw one on the beach one, but it was very far away from us and I was also a little worried about how Barley would respond if our paths crossed any more closely, so we turned and walked a different way down the trail. Usually, the most exciting thing we see is deer–which I actually wrote about today, too!
Fox! Yikes! Once we saw a cat hiding under a car…. That’s it in the wildlife department around here! Thank goodness.
Love and licks,
Cupcake
Up until a couple years ago we had a couple of fox families in the ‘hood. I absolutely loved watching them frolic, spy a human and then make a mad dash into the storm sewer. Always made my day.
A few years ago we had a fox in our woods and her 5 kits. They were adorable, but we only saw them a few times. I think they are fantastic, but my husband isn’t a fan since they dug a huge hole in our shed (dirt floor). We have lots of squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, opossums, skunks, deer and occasionally we’ll see a racoon.
lucky you. foxes are lovely
hubby and i took lily to our local nature park this past monday. we heard turkey hens and hubby spotted them flying off.
A fox sighting gives me my aerobic work-out for the day! I run trying to give the boys a chance at a good chase! Here’s a post I did about 5 years ago…… Back then the boys had off-leash privileges, but after losing Wilson for over 3 hours to a fox, those days are gone!
http://cardiganshirecorgis.blogspot.com/2011/01/doing-foxtrot.html
Lucky you to see a fox. I don’t see those very frequently but when I do there is something mesmerizing about them.
I love how even with the creative comms thing across the photo my first thought on seeing it was “Wow Jodi has really upped her camera skills, what an amazing photo!”
Good thing the fox high tailed it out of there! We have to deal with the darn turkeys at the cabin. They pop up when you least expect them and the dogs are not fans.
When foxes aren’t full of mange they are beautiful to look at.