New Neighbors

Paul Douglass

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S E Washington State
We have had some new neighbors move in this past year. We now have some whitetail deer around and this just since the first of the year some foxes have been lurking in the area. I was outside this am and saw this guy down in my neighbor's field. Ran and got a camera.



 
Lead in: We have animals in our back yard fairly often; rabbits, snakes, skunks, birds, hawks, coyotes, etc.

A bazillion years ago Glenn was into ceramics. The pic shows one of his pots with a Gatorade bottle by it for scale.

One dark night I went out onto the patio. I saw Glenn’s pot but it was not where it normally sat. I thought someone could run into this in dim light and get hurt. I went up to the pot and bent over to pick it up. When my hand was 4 inches from the top I discovered that it was NOT Glenn’s pot---It was a skunk.

In my best horse whisperer voice I said, “Nice skunky, good skunky,” etc. as I slowly backed away.

SCORE: No shots fired, no one injured, everyone very happy.

Enjoy,
JimB
 

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Do you know that in Russia, researchers were able to turn foxes into domestic, dog-like pets. They lost some of their foxy characteristics, though. True. I first heard about this 45 years ago in University, when the research was fairly new. I'd like a fox as a pet.
 
Roger, I assume it is a gray fox, but do not know foxes so much. I had a Coyote for a pet once. Got it when it as a tiny pup. Never could get it fully comfortable as a pet. It was always leery of people. What amazed me, it always smelled wild. Even though it at only domestic dog food and got baths once in a while, it still had a wild smell to it.

I am sure with fox around what is left of out pheasant and quail population will disappear.
 
We have deer, foxes, rabbits, squirrels, skunks, opossums, coyotes and raccoons about our place... and I've even seen a badger and lynx kittens up the road... not around the house. My neighbor says he has coyotes down in his pasture most nights... we hear them but have only seen one on the property... he/she crossed the road into my yard and went up the tree line to the top of the hill... and the neighbor claims there is a bear up on the hill in front of us... haven't seen any signs of her though.

Maggie, my outside dog, probably keeps them fairly clear of the yard.. she's a jack russell mix... about 35-40 lbs and pretty protective of the place. She's getting a little older now and stays closer to home than in the past... the neighbor says he's seen her running a deer.... when our other neighbor was alive and doing some hunting, she would bring home a deer foreleg and once a full deer head with the cape... she's also brought home squirrels, rabbits and once a dead skunk. Since she comes in the house more now, we're not really fond of the skunk hunting.
 
FYI

Being curious I emailed pictures of the fox to the Washington State Dept of Fish and Wildlife. This was their response to the type of fox I saw:

"This is a fox, of the species Red Fox. However, they are not all red and some individuals can be “melanistic” meaning essentially that they are very dark, and can be completely black. This one looks very cool, a partially melanistic individual sometimes calls a “cross” fox. Still all the same species: Red Fox.

Nice sighting and photos!

Jason"
 
Being curious I emailed pictures of the fox to the Washington State Dept of Fish and Wildlife. This was their response to the type of fox I saw:

"This is a fox, of the species Red Fox. However, they are not all red and some individuals can be “melanistic” meaning essentially that they are very dark, and can be completely black. This one looks very cool, a partially melanistic individual sometimes calls a “cross” fox. Still all the same species: Red Fox...

As I was told, fifty years ago, "A Red Fox - no matter what color it is - will have a white-tipped tail. It's a little hard to tell from your pix, but that seems to hold true.
 
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