I really feel I need to record this, as it was quite something to witness. It happened on today’s walk with Tigger.
We’re following a footpath along the edge of a field a short way from our house. There’s a stream bordering it to our left, the large field stretches off to the right, and ahead, in the corner, are a pair of gates – one large, one small – leading into another field, and another gate to the left, past a bridge over the stream, eventually leading to a farmhouse.
I spot a cock pheasant in front of the smaller of the paired gates, which quickly melts into the hedge. I then see, across the field beyond the gates, something else. Thinking it to be another pheasant, I use my camera to zoom in on it, and discover it’s actually a fox, curled up and dozing in the winter sunshine, right on the line of the footpath.
We reach the gates, and it hasn’t stirred. I decide to slip through quietly, carry on walking as usual, and see what happens, but before I can close the smaller gate Tigger has rushed back through. Looking up, I see two more foxes tearing past twenty feet back in the prior field, one chasing the other! They must have been running along the footpath behind us almost to the gates, then curved round 90 degrees to follow the other border.
I hasten after Tigger, but foxes 2 and 3 outdistance us in seconds, vanishing up a straggling extension I tend to call the tail of that field. Confounded, I lead Tigger back through the gates, to find fox 1 has, perhaps unsurprisingly given my vocally shocked (“WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL?!”) reactions, disappeared. We barely make it thirty feet into this huge field, when, amazingly, foxes 2 and 3 reappear far ahead of us, tearing along the footpath straight toward us!
I honestly couldn’t believe my eyes. One veered off about fifty feet from us, crossing the field at a right angle, then stopping just before the hedge. The other stopped thirty feet from us, staring after its fellow for a few seconds. Then Tigger ran for it, and it took off, back the way it had come. It rapidly outdistanced Tigger, and not long after she gave up chasing, it stopped. Then, finally, both melted away.
It was an amazing encounter with beautiful, playful, seemingly friendly animals that left me breathless. I’m still buzzing about it, now. Given the time of year, I think it a pretty safe bet we inadventently got caught up in some vulpine foreplay, a vixen quite literally leading a dog fox on a merry chase prior to mating.
It was an experience I’m likely to remember for a long time. 🙂
Foxy Musings 