We haven’t seen our fox family in several weeks. They may be gone for good.

I am pretty sure their den was down in the woods on the other side of Wildlife Trail, not far from our house. Wildlife Trail runs down the side of our property for a couple of hundred yards to a dead end. The foxes always seem to have come from that direction, and to have run in that direction when spooked. A couple of years ago I saw some fox kits at the edge of the road down there, and I have also heard fox calls coming from that direction. So, I think that’s where the den was.

A couple of weeks ago the county started resurfacing the road. There were deep gullies where the old pavement had washed away over the years. It was so bad that almost no one ever drove down the road. It was a good place for a fox den. But the owner of some property at the dead end has decided to build a house, and he complained enough to the county that they came out to fix the problem.

For almost two weeks the county ran heavy equipment up and down Wildlife Trail all day long. They had graders, backhoes, loaders, dump trucks, rollers, compactors, and tar tankers, not to mention a lot of people. I think the commotion convinced the foxes to move.

I’m also sorry to say that one of our foxes is probably dead. A neighbor up the hill from us told us that he had his son shoot what he thought was a coyote that had been eating cat and dog food at his house. So his son shot what turned out to be a fox.

The resurfacing has been finished since last week, and we have seen no sign of the foxes. Zeke isn’t barking into the dark, and the cat food bowls Leah puts out in the driveway haven’t been licked clean like the foxes used to do. I think they’re gone now, and I’m not sure how I feel about that.

Another hummingbird found its way into our garage on Friday and couldn’t find its way out again. Leah noticed it around the middle of the afternoon. I didn’t really try to catch it because my recent history of trying to do that has been discouraging. The last time this happened, the hummingbird eventually disappeared. We still don’t know whether it got out or was caught by one of the cats.

In this case, Leah saw our little hunter cat Sylvester up on top of the opened garage door, close to the same height as where the bird was flying. She yelled at him, and he ran. So after that I looked out every so often to see whether the hummingbird was still there, and whether a cat was looking for it.

It was there when we left to eat. We got back at about 9 PM, and the hummingbird was still in the garage. I thought I might have a chance to catch it. I knew that it would tend to fly around the overhead light if I turned it on. I hoped it was desperate enough that it would ignore me, so I erected our 8-foot ladder under the light, got a dark towel, climbed up and waited. I didn’t have to wait long. The bird flew towards the light, bouncing up against the ceiling, and I was able to gently capture it in the towel.

It made one of the most pitiful sounds I have ever heard. Sometimes the trapped hummingbirds chirp, and sometimes they’re silent. This one had chirped occasionally, but the sound it made now was not a chirp. It was the weak, mewing sound of hopelessness.

I carried it out and draped the towel over a tall shrub at the edge of the driveway. It laid on the towel with its wings outspread, breathing hard. It didn’t fly away. I didn’t know whether I had hurt it when I caught and carried it, or whether it was just tired and scared.

It was beautiful. Its body was iridescent in the lights from the front of the garage. I thought I would get my camera and try to capture some of that beauty. So I went in and got the camera. When I got back out, the hummingbird was gone. I looked around but didn’t see it. It was fully dark by then, but our outdoor lights cast at least a little illumination on the surrounding trees. It might have been able to fly up into one of the trees. If it did, I assume it can either find its way home or spend the night and get some rest, and then eat a hearty breakfast at our feeder in the morning.

At least I hope so.

If you read our last post on the fox situation, you might remember that our attempt to help a crippled fox has had unintended consequences. We had thought to try to solve two problems. The first was that a fox was eating the food Leah puts out for the outside cats. Her practice has been to put some food in the garage, where Sylvester and Smokey eat, and some outside in the driveway for Chloe, Dusty and Rusty. Sylvester and Smokey chase the other three away, especially Dusty, and keep them from having free access to the food in the garage. That’s why Leah started feeding the three cats out in the drive.

Unfortunately, that also attracted a fox. Leah got into the habit of feeding the cats fairly often during the day, so the cats didn’t feel any need to eat their fill at any given time. So, Leah left the food out, and the fox ate it.

The second problem involved a female fox who suffered an injury to one of its front legs. It seems to be permanently crippled. So we decided to put dog food further out in the driveway, hoping to keep the fox from eating the cat food, and at the same time, hoping to keep the crippled fox alive.

We had reservations about this in the first place, but now we have had serious second thoughts about feeding the fox. Or, as it turns out, the foxes. The one crippled fox has turned into a family of at least three, possibly more. They eat the dog food, and then they eat the cat food. So we have decided to stop feeding the foxes and let nature take its course.

Things are never as easy as they seem at first. Feeding the fox seemed like a simple solution to two problems, but it didn’t work out as we expected. And now not putting out food specifically for the fox isn’t working out all that well either. We still have the problem of the foxes eating the cat food. We have to try to come up with a way to feed the cats but prevent the foxes from eating all their food. So far the foxes don’t come into the garage, but Sylvester and Smokey also keep Chloe, Dusty and Rusty out. I suggested putting their food out twice a day for a set, short period and then taking it up. Leah worries that they will get hungry because they’re used to grazing all day. I say that they will quickly learn to eat when the food is out. We haven’t decided exactly what to do, but it’s obvious that leaving cat food out in the driveway all the time isn’t working.

But what about the title of this post, The fox’s tip? Well, over the past few weeks we have noticed an odd behavior of the foxes. They poop in their feed bowl.

Still life with dog food bowl and fox poop.

Is this what a fox considers an appropriate tip for services rendered?

I assume there is a reasonable explanation for this behavior, but I don’t know what it is. Territory marking? Preventing another animal from feeding at their site? Convenience? Watching Zoe’s bathroom habits?