This year, a fox the color of fire took up residence in the lower part of our overgrown garden. She built an enormous den and proceeded to play, feed, sleep, sunbathe, run, sit and nurse her pups at a prudent distance from the house. Ordinary days looking out the window in my office were turned into extraordinary days looking for and watching Mama Fox and her five pups. It turned out that the bathroom with the smallest window had the best view of the den, a mound of brown dirt hidden between the trees where color and movement signaled that the foxes were there.
Occasionally, they came farther from the den to frolic in the grass, sniff the ground, poke each other, climb the tree stumps, and run under the chairs in the lower patio as if they had found their private playground. Then I would parallel their graceful movements with my clumsy ones as I dashed around the house to keep them in view. Only the insistent little voice that a pressing deadline was waiting took me back to work and away from the foxes.
I found little information on the internet about the foxes of Vermont , but learned that our backyard neighbors are red foxes, with their black legs so easy to spot. I want to know more - about foxes in general and mine in particular. Like, where mother fox found food for all those little ones - though my husband saw her carrying a woodchuck in her mouth as she hurried across the garden one day. And a neighbor told us the foxes had feasted on a burrow of groundhogs nearby. I know I can鈥檛 feed them or get too close 鈥� they鈥檙e wild after all, and there鈥檚 always some worry about rabies 鈥� but I hope she decides to stay around. She鈥檚 been a good neighbor: she鈥檚 quiet and keeps the deer away and the woodchucks out of my flower beds.
The first thing I do every morning upon waking up is look for the foxes. When I don鈥檛 see them right away I imagine mother fox is hunting and the pups are asleep, waiting for their morning meal. Or maybe they鈥檙e out learning how to hunt. I dread the day when they鈥檒l be gone and wish I had the power to stop them from leaving. When I can鈥檛 contain my joy at these creatures living so near and tell my friends about the foxes in our yard, a few smile. 鈥淥h, yes,鈥� they say. 鈥淲e also had a family that came every year for a while.鈥�
Such ordinary animals have become such an extraordinary daily event. A beautiful morning is even more beautiful after watching the fox and her young. A gray morning turns into a nicer one after spotting them, even if fleetingly. Six common foxes transforming our everyday world. May every morning be enriched by the magic simplicity of the cycle of life... foxes or not.
