tamaranth | Fox in a Box, on the way to wildlife hospital

Fox in a Box, on the way to wildlife hos
Originally uploaded by tamaranth.

ladymoonray came over for dinner and pink drink last night (it is, coincidentally, five years this weekend since we first met) and after a tiring evening of eating and drinking we'd planned a leisurely Saturday. But when I woke up there was a fox cub on the verandah ...

S/he was very young, and in shock, and didn't respond to food or water or my presence. Lovely long black hairs scattered through the russet fur. Green-gold eyes. Pretty much paralysed: when I first found the cub, its back legs were splayed at an unnatural angle, and I wondered if it had broken its back. We couldn't just leave him there to die.

So we boxed the fox and drove to Leatherhead, to the wildlife hospital at Randalls Farm. I'm glad such a place exists.

Just phoned to find out how our patient was. They put it to sleep: it'd been poisoned and wasn't going to make it.

Worrying that cats will find whatever foxcub found. Though it was such a young cub that surely it wouldn't have gone after solid food?

And wondering if it crawled all the way onto the verandah because of the water-bowl / birdbath there ... or whether there's something in this garden that poisoned it.

RIP little fox. I've never held a live fox before. At least we shortened its suffering.

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Poor little thing...

Poor little thing. Good for you, taking care of it.

Oh lord, that's hard to bear -- and the kind of thing you can't ever get out of your mind, even though you know you did everything you possibly could to help. I'm so sorry this happened to you.

That is so sad. when I lived in Bethnal Green there was a small patch of ground where the local foxes hid their cubs. You'd see an occassional flash of orange.

Sad. I'm glad you helped.

That is so sad. Poison really is evil. I'm glad you were able to shorten its suffering.

My condolences.

At least the Fox kit came to someone who would help it. The Fox hunting in Englad has always mystified me - probably as much as a lot of American customs mystify the rest of the world. I've got foxes out back here, and love their yips and yelps, even thought they'd eat my dog given half a chance.

So sad. The world is a tough place for foxes these days.

Oh, the poor baby. How sad. And how awful for you! But you did what you could to help, which must be some comfort.

*joins you in fretting about the cats*

whether there's something in this garden that poisoned it.

I think there's a possibility that it was deliberately poisoned - a lot of people don't like urban foxes 'cos of noise, mess, perceived potential danger to young children, etc. If so, the poison would have to have been placed somewhere where the Nasty Person had access, ie not your garden (unless it was Them Upstairs). As your cats don't roam far, they should be safe.

The alternative would be something like slug pellets, and I doubt your cats would ever be desperate enough to eat those. I doubt it was rat/mouse poison as people tend to put that down to get rid of home invasions, ie inside a property.

Still, not a nice thing to find. Well done on Doing Something, even if the result was not good. You did at least reduce its suffering, and that's not insignificant.

wildlife hospital were fairly reassuring -- cub was probably too young to be eating solid food (though it may have found a dying, poisoned rodent): more likely to have ingested poison from its mother. Though of course that may mean she's eaten something accessible to cats.

Cats are blithe and happy, and stared hard at (I presume) Mother Fox as she crossed the garden last night. She stared back. Go fox!

Gosh, that means it's also five years since I met both of you!

Sorry about the fox. :(

Fox in a Box, on the way to wildlife hospital

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