Winter

Winter

Monday, May 24, 2010

Puffy Cloud Day


I love puffy cloud days. Today started out rainy,
cold and windy, more like March than almost the end
of May. It was still pretty though. Now it is just
as beautiful as May can be, soft breeze, blue skies
and the air smells of spring. I always wish I could describe
the smell of spring, it might be the smell of the warming
earth, the faint smell of blossoms in the wind, the
smell of warm grass. The air to me always has this
faint feeling of welcoming me home.

Spring also means new babies, baby birds, baby chicks and
of course, baby foxes, kits.
This morning, I could hear the rooster next door making his
warning cry so I knew something was amiss. I looked out to see
my sister-in-law pick up a dead chicken.
I walked next door, and sure enough, a fox had climbed her fence
and got into the little chicken yard. The fox wasn't able to get back over the
fence with the dead chicken in its mouth. She did get away though and floated
off back to her burrow.

My sister-in-law has a humane trap but as of yet, she has only caught kit foxes.
Which because they are native to California and on the endangered list,
you had better not do a thing to them. She has not caught the red foxes
yet.
Then this evening my brother called and told me to go look out in their
pasture, so I did. I could see the momma and her 4 kits. Cutest things ever. They
were wrestling in the grass and running around like tiny little puppies.
Of course you know what that means, Momma fox+ 4 kits= chicken carnage.
It will be war until they all get caught and the trapper called. I hate this part.
I wish I could just make pets of them. But they are a wild animal. When
I owned a raccoon, the man I got her from told me that when you take a
wild animal, it takes at least 3 generations before they are sort of domesticated.
But he said," you must always remember they are still wild."
My raccoon was a 4th generation but she still was a wild animal and she
still did what was her nature.
Even so, the kits are really cute. I couldn't get close enough to get a picture.
Have a great Monday!

4 comments:

Kessie said...

Oh wow. My neighbor told me that when they talked to the SPCA about what to do about kit foxes, the SPCA told them that not only do we have kits out here, but also skunks and badgers. Be glad it's not a badger problem you're having!

Anonymous said...

oh! Beatiful Blog!
Kisses
Flor

Farm Girl said...

badgers??? What the heck does one look like? I never knew we had badgers out here.

I Love Pretty Little Things said...

Oh, That is a hard one! I have seen a little fox kit before. So Cute!- But, the poor chickens!