We have been feeding the foxes for a while now, as much to save cat food as to help the foxes, we tell ourselves. We have been seeing two, we think, because one of them doesn’t limp. The mama, we think, has the bad front leg. She sometimes puts her weight on it, but holds it up when she walks. Last night, we saw three together. I tried to get a shot of all of them, but only managed to get two.
Two of the three
I had to shoot through the kitchen window, but before I could shoot, I had to take the screen off. We have casement windows, so the screens are on the inside. And then the camera wanted to use the flash, and I was too far from the foxes. In any event, I never got all three in the same shot.
One of these was definitely the crippled fox. We aren’t sure who the other two are. At first I assumed one was the father and the other was the kit, now almost grown, because a neighbor said her critter camera had caught only one kit. We were assuming that only one had survived, but these two looked so similar that now I’m not sure about that. They were more skittish than the mother, who sometimes just watches if we come out onto the front walk when she’s eating.
This explains why it’s taking so much dog food for a little fox. We’re feeding a family.
It really does look like you are feeding a fox family. A fellow blogger in Oregon is in a similar situation with a family that has moved onto her land. Here are two of her posts chronicling her experiences. I’ve been enjoying reading about your experiences and hers. I hope you like these.
http://rainydaythought.blogspot.com/2013/06/chronicles-of-fox.html
http://rainydaythought.blogspot.com/2013/07/fox-story-continued.html
Sorry, Mark, but I don’t understand how feeding the foxes (potentially) saves you on cat food. Am I dense?
Scott – the thinking, such as it is, is that if we keep enough dog food far enough away from the cat food, the foxes will stay further away from the house and the cat food. It seems to work, at least most of the time, but we didn’t realize we have been feeding more than the one crippled fox. We had an internal debate early on about having the foxes anywhere near the house getting used to seeing and not fearing humans, and came down on the side of chasing them away. And we did that, for a while. But the crippled (I use that term instead of injured because it seems to be a permanent injury) fox kept coming up close to the house and eating the outdoor cats’ food. I’m not keen on having three to five outdoor cats (two are part-time indoor cats), potentially killing wildlife, but none of them is suitable for adopting out, and around here, a stray cat at the pound is a dead cat. My wife is a cat lover, and that near certainty is enough that we keep them here. Fortunately all but one are lazy enough not to be much of a threat to wildlife. I don’t think it’s an ideal situation.
I guess I should note that feeding the fox doesn’t save on dog food, but it allows my wife to keep some cat food outdoors most of the time. The cats are grazers.