The tale of the amorous Mr Fox

It could be straight from a Victorian hunting journal not a modern day vets son, not my cup of tea

Well there is hardly a week goes by without another fox storey illuminating the ignorant, last week it was the ‘giant’ fox that allegedly killed a vets 19 yr old tabby cat in Maidstone in Kent for which he had to trap it and destroy the beast let alone get his 7 yr old son photographed next to it. Now Im no whoosss’ when it comes to foxes but there were many things in that storey that just didn’t sit right with me least of which is a vet taking the moral high ground and acting as judge, jury and executioner in presiding over the actions of a wild animal, whether it was guilty or not I think a vet is not best placed to be in that position especially if some of the quotes attributed to him were correct.

I have a bit of a soft spot for the fox it is such a maligned creature in many quarters with so much against it an yet still it survives. I enjoy the weird mating calls and watching the cubs playing in the bluebells in spring but woe betide the fox that gets to interested in my chickens, that would of course be after I had suitably berated myself for not making sure their living quarters were fox proof and secured them in for the night. It is and I do and although we have foxes around I aint lost one in 7 years (oh dear, famous last words).

Mating foxes make some extrordinary noises

However, this week I had a call from someone a bit more local with a very strange tale to tell of the Fantastic Mr Fox. Now there is a lot being said about urban foxes and if they are pests or not why there are so many, are my children safe etc. We don’t have time for most of the nonsense that is spoken but as long as we continue to be as messy a species as we are and continue to spread our towns and cities outwards into the countryside we will always have ‘urban’ foxes.

This tale involves a very amorous fellow who is obviously a bit short sighted too, confused and or desperate. A lady called to say she was concerned that ‘her’ foxes were starving in the cold weather and was her cat at risk and should she do anything about them i.e. feed them. I said I couldn’t stop her if she wanted to but advised that urban foxes are rarely hungry and it can often lead to other issues with other neighbours, the cat can probably look after itself and the council will charge her if she wants it removed. I also said the reason she was seeing and hearing them more was this was the mating season and strange noises are common at this time of the year as the dogs bark and the vixens scream as part of their mating rituals.

‘Oh’ she said, how would I explain the fox chasing her neighbours Jack Russell through the cat flap and into the kitchen if it were not starving? Puzzled, I quizzed further as I was quite intrigued as to why a fox would risk itself against such a mortal enemy as a Jack Russell terrier.

The normal partner of the fox.....his own kind but as the say "any port in a storm"

It turns out the Jack Russell was a bitch and was on heat and that’s what the fox was intent on doing, not eating it but procreating with it. Sounds ludicrous but that’s what was described to me the fox was trying its hardest to molest the very subservient dog much to the disgust of its owner who shooed it out with the broom. It all seems a bit odd as the bulk of the literature suggests that this act is impossible (differences in chromosomes) but there is an unconfirmed female terrier/fox hybrid that was reported and later euthanized (killed), in the UK several years back and British gamekeeper folklore claims that terrier bitches can produce offspring with male foxes.

What do I think, well in the heady throws of the mating ritual, hormones are quite likely to take over the fox equivalent of beer goggles perhaps or may be the terrier was just too vulpluptuous. It was indeed a strange event which prompted the owner to block the cat flap and keep the terrier in doors for the duration but that left us all amused.

Come May there will be more fox cubs to keep me entertained