I’ve been keeping busy in the lockdown.
I was hanging out at the end of my garden today. I pruned the apple tree in winter and I’ve been terrified it wouldn’t bud. However, it’s sprouting like a trooper, blossom abounding, so I was getting a close up look. Then I noticed a fox the other side of the tree, standing staring at me. So I stood and stared at her for a bit. And she stared at me. I thought, This is nice. We’re having a moment. Then she ran over to the fence where a small animal was trundling through a hole into my garden. It looked like a puppy, squat and dark brown, with a stubby tail. I’ve seen fox cubs before, but they didn’t look like that. The fox tried to nudge the pup back through the hole, and when it wouldn’t go she gripped it with her mouth to try and pick it up. I shifted around the tree to get a better look and saw there were four or five of these little puppies squeezing through the hole, ignoring the fox trying to get them back out again. They were crawling underneath her while she tried to sit on them so they couldn’t, all the while still gripping the one pup by the neck. She kept looking over at me warily, no doubt thinking I was up to no good.
I decided I needed to get my phone to try and get a picture and quickly turned, smacking my face straight into a thick tree branch of my lovely pruned tree. I didn’t knock myself out, but had to sit on the ground for a bit with my head in my hands. When I looked later my eye had gone a bit purple, and there were scratches and bumps across the lid and up my forehead in a clear line.
Anyway, now I’ve looked it up, those dog-like pups are exactly what fox cubs look like when they’re very small. No wonder the fox was protective and suspicious. Hopefully, having seen me walk into a tree she’ll have realised I’m not even slightly a threat.
inkbiotic 
I’m sorry but I am sitting here giggling with this mental picture in my head of you whacking your head on the branch…..lol. Hugs!!!
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This is definitely the right reaction. I found it funny too, once the stars had stopped spinning!
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lol!!
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Well, the story the fox will tell her babies, “Way back when you were cubs, this human tried to move a tree…”
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That is the best and kindest interpretation she could come up with! I could go down in fox lore, become a morality tale…
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You are a fox tale. 🦊
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😀
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The world is a better place for the demise of the dressed-up horse-bound poltroons who thought it a good idea to slaughter these beautiful creatures. Everything has a place. Except wasps. And earwigs…
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Now wait a minute, people hate on wasps a lot, but when the bees finally keel over, wasps are our main hope at pollination and survival, right? And earwigs are useful in composts to break decaying fruit down.
However, you’re sticking up for the lovely foxes and you used the phrase horse bound poltroons, so you still get a pay rise and a gold star.
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Sentimental about foxes because their furriness makes them mire cuddlely than and earwig.
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PS the apple tree looks fantastic. Such lethal beauty.
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Thank you! It is a determined bugger! And to be fair to it, my stupidity is probably more lethal than the actual tree 😉
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Close encounters with wildlife can stop us in our tracks and just take in he awesomeness.
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And it is truly awesome.
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