I dunno....maybe he's just, different.

Just your daily fox entry for you to enjoy-

     I get home from work tonight pretty late on Monday night, and I usually spend a half hour just unwinding and talking to my husband about his day.  The conversation usually ends with, "have you seen Ash tonight?" This particular night he hadn't so I grab a bag of cat food to go outside and put some in his dish. Yes cat food. I figured, he has eaten it before since there was nothing else being offered, and since he has been hiding his food (poorly and in plain sight for the past two weeks) I guessed it was worth a shot giving him something that would be more difficult to hide.

     You see I haven't written much about this "new behavior," quite yet until I had something to really validate it with. Tonight seemed to be the validation.  The validation was the continued behavior of hiding his food and not eating a single piece of it- and time.  Its been two solid weeks of us watching him each night gracefully grab his food, look at us with his red eyes, and then run and hide it.  As the the first week grew into the second, the "hiding," of his food became more or less "hand it to me and I'm going to burry it in the pile of leaves next to your feet." At first we laughed. Telling Ash he was getting lazy and pretty uncreative in his hiding spaces. Usually the bird feeder, our pine tree and the chicken coop (yes the chicken coop) are laden with hotdog pieces the following morning. But seeing a hotdog piece the next morning in the corner of your driveway seemed to be his new half assed thing.

Well, as I went out to put food in his dish I gave him his whistle call to let him know supper was ready, and proceeded to go to the chicken coop to collect the girls work (eggs.) This time paying more attention to little pitter patter of feet as to not scare the pee out of myself again if he ran up to the coop.  I did what I had to do at the coop which included putting a tarp over their fenced in yard. (Its going to rain pretty heavy in the morning so I didn't want the girls to be stuck inside all day - The tarp will allow them a little protection from the rain) As I was out there for a while I got used to the dark and shut off the flashlight I was holding since it was just in the way. After finishing I thought to myself I better put the flashlight back on so I don't trip over a fox on the way back to the house. Good thing I did cause sitting in the middle of the yard was that pretty little red coat.  He started to follow me back to the house- gleefully running in front of me and behind, and stopping for a quick minute to - take a pee. "Hmm." Once again a new behavior I have yet to see from him. He is a rather- polite- fox but I figured I'd let that one slide as I have more of a sympathy lately to having to pee at all inconvenient times. 

He waited while I minced his chicken and put it in the dish. But before walking over to it- he rubbed up against a tall log we have sitting near the steps, and then did what just made me laugh out loud. Or "lol," for all you hepcats out there.

He put his front paws on the log- sniffed- then jumped up on it. He got a good look into out house, the dogs watching him, and his dish before jumping down. He walked to his dish- grabbed the tiniest piece- dropped it back in- and then ran to watch the dogs. Sat in the yard, and groomed himself rather, intently.

I came back inside laughing and telling my husband of the "new thing Ash did." And then quickly ran back outside to see what he was now up to.

I saw him out by the chicken coop just a little into the woods. He was rubbing up against a tree stump and watching me. While I sat there watching him back he climbed onto the stump, used it as a scratch post, and then laid down to groom himself more.

Here's the coolest part. While I sat (at the chicken coop- oh the irony) watching this friendly fox, I heard in the distance the unmistakeable mating call- of another fox.

(On my days off I study these mammals- mating calls just happens to be a part of that. But hey, when your a geek, geeky things interest you. What? I'll own it.)

We've had a hunch that this "behavior," of storing food, and coming in to check on us, had something to do with "coming into season," for our foxy friend.  This does happen for them at the onset of winter, with kits being born anywhere between February and May.  But after tonight and seeing the "almost catinheatlike personality," come out of him we now question more, if the he is really a her:)

Loving being a fan and following Ash's tweets.