My poor fox.

 I fear the worst has happened to one of my fox. (And no, this is not an April Fools joke as much as I wish it were!) I was following one of the well worn wildlife paths around my property and came upon this. A lot of fox fur scattered about this particular area. Normally I would have just figured one of them blew its coat out, but on closer inspection the fur was still attached to hide on some of the bigger clumps.

I haven't seen any of them in a while now and there are no other clues or evidence to give me any explanation. I just figured with baby season upon them they were busy at the den. For now, I can only wonder.....and be a little bummed out as well!

Onto other unexplained mysteries. Someone else out there is screwing with me! I can't tell you how many times I have had to pick up this owl! I'm quite sure it's on purpose and there is a furry little wise ass, snickering into it's mischievous little paws, as it watches me from the shrubs across my front lawn bending over to put it back where it belongs...yet again!!!

Game on wiseguy! LOL

Happy April everyone......people have already jinxed me enough to say with out jinxing myself, we're on borrowed time! Babies should be coming in any time now......

A pleasant fox update.

Well I am very happy to report that  the fox I had feared dead with a terrible case of mange appears to be doing well!  This one had a totally hairless tail and it's face was quite affected the last time I had seen it on the motion camera. It was not as predictable as my other one and I was never actually sure if it got any of the medicated meals left out there...where the other was kind enough to ingest all its mice for me to witness!

What makes me think it is that particular fox is the tail fur. Now, mind you, these pics actually make this one look better than it is! But there is new hair growth....the longer red fur around the neck, shoulder and sides is growing in long and nice. The areas that look like shorter fur is in fact starting to grow back in, but it is still pretty mangy looking in person. And the tail....still partially hairless but not totally anymore. Lots of new, lovely fur growing in there!

The eyes are bright and alert....not as mange encrusted as they used to be.

A lovely spring to it's gait and not plagued by itching. Able to see enough and active enough to hunt, I am finally quite hopeful for my fox population out here!

This one prefers looking by the feeding area across the front yard for morsels as opposed to the landscaped island on the opposite side of the front lawn. So I will redouble my efforts to make sure this one continues to improve by baiting that area as well as the island with the hopes both continue to get their doses! Since they both generally like to visit between 10am and 3pm, and since I have a clear view from inside the house to those areas, I should be able to keep a pretty good eye on who got what and when!

Calling all these foxes Foxy is getting too confusing. So I guess, at least while I can tell them apart, I'll call this one Lucky. The healthy one I saw on Christmas....lets say Holly? and Foxy can be the one that started it all!

A Christmas visitor.

I am happy to see not all the fox in my area appear to be affected by mange! This beauty was around Christmas morning. I was pretty sure this was not my usual guest that I have been treating. This one has a much nicer coat and a black band around the tail that my foxy doesn't have. (Not to mention Dad saw my foxy hanging around yesterday with her less than perfect coat.)

Beautiful fox in great condition. Stopped by for a little Christmas gift! (or I should say stole one from the birds! LOL)

The suspect then absconded with a small loaf into the woods!

I had a lot of cute pics of the larceny, however there is a very annoying problem going on with uploading my pics to the blog. It takes FOREVER for pics to upload now for some reason. I have been trying since taking these pics and finally I let the computer run all day yesterday trying to "upload"  four pics! I ended up  having to just cancel it and keep trying again doing one at a time. I gave up at 3, hours later! Sorry...but my patience had worn out by that time...grrrrrrrrrrrrrr. This is going to be a problem if it is an ongoing issue.

Oh happy fox sighting!

I am sooooo happy to report a very happy, foxy update! I haven't seen my fox that I've been baiting with ivermectin for mange in a while....and I feared the worst. Thanks to one of my very attentive boys, Marley, I was alerted to a visitor this past Friday morning. And there it was....hanging out right under the window, as if to say look at me now...I'm lookin' good!

The face and legs are still a little sparse and scruffy looking, and you can see the bare spots on the legs where the mange had originally set in....

But look at that beautiful back side! Lots of new, beautiful fur growth on the butt above the tail where it had been bare, and a nice fluffy tail!

And the fur on the face and under the chin and chest.....growing in! That's a fur coat that will get it through a cold winter now and I'm thrilled.

On the down side, there had been a second one hanging around as well...in much worse shape and I have not seen that one in a while either. It was a little more skittish and I generally only got a look at that one on the game camera at night. However that has been broken for a while and I have not been able to monitor as well. I can only hope maybe it is doing as well, but since it was not as common a visitor during the day I'm just not aware of it's condition. In the meantime I will continue to treat them as best I can and hope to enjoy their visits for a long time to come!

Another fox rescue.

I got a call from Dee Dee at Billerica Animal Control yesterday about yet another fox in a predicament! This time the poor thing managed to get it's head stuck in the hole of a sewer grate. Don't ask me how it managed that...the holes in the grate were no more than 3x3 in one of those big square grates in the road that are about 40lbs. or so! Lucky for the fox, a man walking his dog noticed the little head sticking out of the ground. So, foxy here probably chased something into the drainage system somewhere where there was an opening, then managed to get a little lost and was trying to get out.

The poor thing was freaked out and there was no way an extrication was going to happen unless it was sedated. So they loaded  the fox (grate and all) into the ACO van and I met them at McGrath Animal Hospital where they were ready to assist!

Once it was finally sedated enough, I have to say I figured there was NO WAY we were going to be able to get that head outta there without some major extrication equipment from the fire department or somewhere. But we started manipulating the head a little from one side and the body from the other and it just popped out of there! Holy crap I couldn't believe it! Just that suddenly it was over. Never even had to try soaping it up.

Andrea popped it the butt with a reversal for the sedative and into a crate it went to wake up. Wish they could all be that easy!

I brought it home to give it a little time to relax and recover in peace and quiet for about an hour. Then I met Maureen from animal control back at the site the fox had been found for the big release!

Our VERY beautiful, healthy little fox was more than ready to be done with us.....

....and wasted no time high tailing it into the woods from whence it came! Insert warm fuzzy feeling here! :)

No pictures of the actual entrapment and extrication.....the poor thing was way too stressed to even consider it, but I'm sure you get the idea without them!

WARNING!! Graphic photos to yesterdays story!

OK....for those who dared to stomach it, here are the photos of the poor little baby I told you about yesterday.

So very sad and horrible. :(

I must leave you with something a little more upbeat! Just a cute little image to try to get the others out of your head a little....my foxy friend having a quiet moment next to one of her new friends. I think they are having a fling! LOL  :)

A very foxy update.

Been working on my poor fox population here at home. I may have to resort to trapping. This one is not looking great, but not a bad as another that has been hanging out. The poor thing is very skinny and it's eyes are being affected by the mange now, but I don't see it regularly enough to get the proper meds into it.

My regular visitor is definitely reaping the benefits though. If nothing else, the mange is not getting worse and she's not starving! She checks the area I bait regularly so she gets occasional treats....

....and I usually get all the proof I need that she's eating the mouse with the ivermectin in it too!

Yummy!

Remember that awful looking fox we captured and brought up to Tufts? Well here it is now looking absolutely beautiful! Hard to believe it's the same fox. Pretty soon it will be heading up to Dawn's (where we brought the 11 kits earlier in the season) for final rehab and a soft release. The fox is doing great but the fur is a little sparse for going into the colder months so it needs a little extra support. It's much better off up there anyway! Good luck little fella.....love the happy ending!

Operation mangy fox, the sequel.

Some odd fox happenings here at home. At the beginning of the week I found a juvenile dead out by the feeding stating across my front yard. No apparent injuries or mange. Best I can figure the poor thing either got hit by a car and made his way back to where he felt safe and died, or a coyote encounter. My neighbor had seen one in  my yard that day so it's possible the fox was on the loosing end of a territorial dispute. One quick grab and shake and the fox would be dead of a broken neck within seconds with very little wounds. The coyote, defending the territory and not hunting, would leave it there as opposed to hauling it off to eat.

Some better luck for one of my other resident foxes. A couple weeks ago I had seen her hanging around near some of my shrubs. She does that quite regularly and likes to lay in the sun by them. I happened to have my binoculars so I took a closer look and to my horror I noticed she obviously had the beginning of mange on her legs! So I put a plan in motion to help her out before it became bad enough to affect her health.

With the help of a supply of frozen mice, some ivermectin, and some patience, I decided to medicate her. I injected a mouse with the ivermectin and put it out near one of her "regular" spots.

Contrary to my usual luck, she showed up shortly after I put the first mouse out there! I was all excited until I watched her just sitting there next to the damn thing, scratching like crazy, ignoring it! (the little white thing on the mulch).

A couple minutes later though, and success! She saw it and gobbled it right down! What a relief!

Hooray!! Treatment number one down, she looked over as if to say thanks for the snack and ambled off down the driveway again. Hopefully the next few treatments will go as well. She needs to get some every 10 days or so for about 4 treatments, but luckily I caught it early enough that just that one dose should make a big difference.

This little guy was not so happy about the visit! He opted to rely on the protection atop St. Francis there outside my front door to keep him safe while he watched, in disgust I'm sure, as the fox devoured a distant cousin....LOL

Operation mangy fox is a success!

Last week Laurie got a call about a little fox that had been seen in town not looking very well. When she responded she was able to locate the poor thing (it looked like it had mange) but unable to catch it as it led her on a merry chase through the woods! Luckily the people kept an eye out for it and when they discovered it under their front porch the next day, Laurie, Lisa and I headed over to try to catch it.

It just so happened we were armed with our newly acquired equipment, thanks to the Flatbread fundraiser...and our efforts were a success!!

The poor little thing is now at Tuft's getting treatment. It will probably be 6 weeks or more of treatment, but in the end we will be able to release it back in it's own home area. 

I have to apologize for a lack of posts! My computer hard drive fried. I am totally lost and for the most part am only getting on the computer when at work. I am also praying I can recover all my pics. and info. that were on the damn thing that hadn't been transferred to an external hard drive yet. (Pretty much all the 2011 rehab pics!!!! Insert BIG scream here!)

It also means no quick way to get photos from camera to blog. I can't download them to the work computer to get them onto the blog, so hopefully some visits to my parents house will give me an opportunity got get some on here....or I may be borrowing Laurie's laptop for a bit.... 

So in advance....I'm sorry if some of the updates may be a little boring with no cute pics and just a lot of blah, blah, blah to look at! Right now you're looking at the last picture I managed to get on here.

Outside my kitchen window....

On those very rare occasions, when I actually have a chance to sit at my kitchen table and check my emails while enjoying a much needed cup of coffee, (after the first round of feedings of course!) I keep my camera close. There is an amazing world going on out there... right outside my kitchen window!

Lots of baby birds following parents around begging to be fed....

As always, the fuzzballs the feeders were intended for....

....and those they were not intended for, but who insist on raiding....

Yup...even some of the girls are getting into the act! The high demand of their kits probably driving them to the high fat and protein bonanza to be found here.

Generally the coonies wait till dark so as not to ruffle the tails of the likes of this guy! The fox may have learned where the squirrels like to hang out, but the squirrels have learned to keep a guard on duty. Usually one of the older, more seasoned adults is standing sentry on the railing and I'm amazed at how sharp they are. One sound from the sentry and all those at the feeder head up to the top of the tree or the railings.....and wait until it is deemed safe. They have learned to head up and wait it out or exit under the thick cover of the bushes along the foundation around to the other side of the house. They know not to just run across the open yard now.

It's not often you see these guys fluttering from tree to tree like a little song bird....but in the spring, Mr. Wood duck is obediently following Mrs. Wood duck around as she searches for the perfect hollow to lay her eggs. He followed her around for about an hour this particular morning! LOL

There is an over abundance of these guys this year! I have never seen so many! I'm practically stepping on them as I walk through the woods.

And as always I am not able to linger and enjoy this relaxing show. Got a new guy in yesterday. He was found at an abandoned train station and an attempt to reunite for a night was unsuccessful. So the little boy named Pinner was brought here. He's in perfect shape...a very healthy, chunky little boy. He's comfortably settled in and sucking down his bottles like a pro. After his 2 week quarantine he'll be a perfect pal for Spencer who is still a loner since he's still a little too young to be in a bigger crate with any of the rest of the groups.

Right now everyone else is doing fine. Bama is eating and happy to be back with Springer and Chester. I'm thinking soon they will join Tumbler, Legend, Rizzoli and Isles as one big group. Just giving it a little more time to make sure no other problems break with any of them.......

Friends, foes & moving day for the girls.

Still no visit from Vin yet, but Scrappy here is still making regular visits. He especially likes to show up when I'm out feeding everyone else. Hmmmmmm, wonder why that is??? LOL

After running into Scrappy I had the extreme pleasure of running into my Ringer girl! I had just thrown a little treat to Hissy out back and as I went to walk by the main feeding platform she came running down to see me. So I gave her some dinner and we hung out while she ate. She looks great and, as usual, despite not seeing each other for months, she was quite happy to see me and was more than accepting of a few scratches under the chin and behind the ears! How wonderful it is to see how well she has done since her release in 2006!!

Yesterday Laurie and I got the girls moved to the release site! After a frustrating, sometimes humorous (not all coonies turn around to bite you when you grab their tails to prevent them from getting up a tree after escaping!), sometimes painful (unfortunately for Laurie....some do when you're not the mamma and you're trying to grab them!) we FINALLY got them all packed in crates and shipped to the release site.

So in a couple weeks, Pip, Merry, Dolci, Stony, May, Amy, Moose and Kinky will be free at last! Maybe they can say Hi to Baloo, Cinn, Peanut and the gang if they run into them since it's the same release site.

My little red friends don't seem to be stalking the squirrel feeder as much....but I do occasionally have to chase one or the other off. I came downstairs the other day to find this one laying on the ground right in front of the deck. On top of the railing was a big fat (obviously very smart) squirrel....just sitting up watching it! OK....maybe it was actually taunting it! That squirrel knew to stay calm and sit tight....the fox wasn't getting it up there. LOL

I opened the kitchen window to "suggest" to the fox it might want to move along. As it took off across the yard, foiled once again, it turned and I got one last dirty look before it ran into the woods.

Instead of sauntering off into the woods as usual, I think it decided to test our intelligence a little. A grateful squirrel was not fooled in the least and opted to trot right past me into the woods while I stood guard.
Sorry little fella....I love you guys, but this is not the fox feeding station! (But it sure is nice to get such a close up look at such a beauty!)

The gang's all here.

A couple days sitting at my kitchen table feeding pinkies as I stare out the kitchen window has given me the opportunity to see that most of the usual gang is back this spring.

OK so the foxes were here all along, but they have now come to think of my squirrel feeders as a possible new feeding station for them! I'm not impressed, however, with their skills.

I think this is Mr. Fox.....on his fourth unsuccessful attempt. By the time I get up to run out there and prevent a breech of the peace, he's already heading off empty handed! The weed whacker is back to keeping the lawn nice and trimmed.... ...and my favorite turkey girl is back for her usual spring retreat. She's pretty good at helping protect the squirrels at the feeder also, when she's there. The fox steers away while she's out there. She is, after all, just as big as them...if not bigger! They know better than to mess with her.

So far so good with the little coonie babies, the pinkies have gone to Lisa and although I didn't have to trade anything, I did end up with 2 more squirrels that are older and only need to eat 5 times a day instead of every 2 hours! A couple girls..1 is 5 weeks and the other 6 weeks. I'll get pics eventually!

Red fox kits rescued.

OK...be prepared for the ultimate cuteness!

Laurie got a call from an alpaca farm in our area that found a litter of fox pups in the barn. They had seen the mom laying in the field one day. But 2 days later when she was still there, they knew something was wrong. On closer inspection she looked perfectly normal like she was just laying there, however when they turned her over she was torn apart. Poor thing had fallen victim to some type of predator....possibly a coyote or fisher?

It wasn't hard to find a litter of hungry, crying kits in the barn. A litter of 11! Yup.....11! Holy cow!! That is unusually large for a fox litter. (or any litter for that matter...hehehe).

So the kind woman brought them to Laurie at work and she and Lisa began the re hydration process....while we tried to figure out what the heck we were going to do with them all.

So I met up with them after work and we divided and conquered. I took 4, Lisa took 4 and Laurie took 3.

Now...prepare for the cuteness! Here is my gang in all their glory!

2 boys and 2 girls and I loved every moment with them....even the late night hours! They were quite vocal and full of personality....even at 2-3wks old. It's amazing how much quicker they mature than our domestic dogs! These guys were already wrestling, dominating each other and had even eaten some soaked puppy chow! One of the females had some serious attitude....she would attack the bottle, growl and shake the nipple into submission, making sure she had properly subdued the beast before finally deciding it was OK to actually drink the formula from it and fill her belly.

As soon as the bellies were full, into their "den" for some serious nap time.

Once again I contacted Dawn out in Western Mass. and she agreed to take the whole gang of them! She's a wonderful rehabber and specializes in coyote and fox. In fact she's the one that took my coyote pups last year.

And once again we lucked out with the transport all the way out there. Thanks again to Jim (and his very polite and accommodating sidekick Samantha!) who let them hitch a ride.

So Lisa collected the other 7 together and brought them over here to be reunited as one big happy litter of 11 again. Then I packed them up and off they went....sniff, sniff....

Oh it was so hard parting with them! But it's best for them so.....

One last pic before I left.....an adorable pile of 11 sleeping fox kits tucked away all snug and safe!

So thanks to a combined effort from a lot of people...these little guys are in good hands! Can't thank you enough Dawn!