February 19, 2011 "A Fox in the Hen House"

Last week, I noticed my cat had seen something through the window, so I looked out to see what she was looking at.  I saw a movement at the back fence line, too fast and too big for a cat.  A fox!!!!  It appeared he was on the other side of the fence, looking for the hole in the fence that has never been repaired since a tree fell on it.  I suppose the neighbor who has repaired his fence three times since I've lived here, has given up on repairing it, so there is a small section that is mangled, the wire bent up enough for a fox or other animal to crawl under. 


I went out and started piling up anything I had against the opening, old wire fencing leftover from building the coop, held tight with cinderblocks and old boards from the torn down deck.  As I turned to go get another board from the pile, lo and behold, Mr. Fox was in MY YARD, halfway between me and the chicken coop, the little stinker.  I started screaming at him like a regular maniac and barking at him.  He didn't even bother to break into a run, but casually trotted to the side fence, hopped over with no problem at all and sauntered off.  WHY was I trying to block the hole on the bottom of the fence when the little rascal had no problem jumping the fence?

I suppose he had decided he was going to have a late lunch at KFC and I thwarted his plans.  It wasn't even dusk, but more like 3pm and he didn't appear to be anymore afraid of me than the man in the moon.  Didn't act rabid, just.....unconcerned.  My neighbor had come over a week before to tell me he saw TWO foxes playing in his front yard one evening. 

  It is probably the animal trotting away in the leaves that I had heard several nights in a row when I first saw an opossum on top of the coop one night.

This week, I saw a dead fox in the road and wondered if it was "the" fox.  Still, there is obviously another one.  I cannot see where they have attempted to get into the coop so at least that is good news.  The chickens did stop laying for a few days and I have a feeling that could be the reason.