Fox babies

What a great morning! Everything looked so beautiful covered in snow. At 7am this morning, the park was bathed in a grey / orange light and the usual stark outline of the trees were now distinctly less so covered as they were in fluffy tufts of snow. Pluto absolutely loved the white, wet stuff and was generally v. v. excited about the whole thing! He kept nudging snow with his nose and then licking his face.

We had the park to ourselves or so we thought… I saw a fox watching us. I was surprised, because normally they scarper and I was wary that this was a dog (male) fox and was up for a bit of a barney, which would be highly unusual but I suppose not beyond the bounds of possibility. ‘He’ just sat there, watching us and really quite close. I moved Pluto on, who wasn’t really bothered, and then as I rounded the corner I saw why. Cubs. Three babies, calling and yowling for their mother at the bottom of a long hedge. They froze and then disappeared under the hedge and by this time the mother had doubled round to the other side, and stood near the fence, and again watched us to make sure we didn’t go too close…

Once more I quickly moved Pluto on so he didn’t get wind of what he would probably think were potential playmates! But my heart was hammering away, delighted that I had caught a glimpse of this secretive world. Let’s face it we see foxes all the time, normally on the way to or from a rubbish bin! But this was something special, a mother and her cubs on a beautiful snowy morning…

As we left the park a robin – my favourite bird – hopped down in front of me and danced about until Pluto got to close and he flew off again. I’m not sure I can explain why, but I felt strangely privileged about the whole thing.