Fox tales

Back in the spring, we heard a gray fox bark nearly every night for awhile. It’s a disturbing sound, screamy and rather tortured. (There are some examples at youtube.) It would always begin after the girls were put to bed, and it would always get our dog barking.

We haven’t heard it in awhile, and none of our back yard tenants — rabbits, woodchuck, chipmunks, birds — have disappeared. We figured he was gone, hit by a car or moved on to another area. But today on the way home from church, there was the fox, just a few lots down from our house.

It was strange to see it in the daylight, and its behavior was stranger still. We figured it had rabies, so we pulled over, called the sheriff, and waited till he arrived — at which point he immediately shot the fox.

It was a sad learning opportunity, but still a meaningful one. Such a beautifully made animal, yet so clearly very sick. It had a couple of seizures while we waited, and it couldn’t seem to walk far without collapsing into the grass.We saw an incredibly fat woodchuck scuttle out to harvest apples a time or two, and he spied the fox but seemed to recognize something was wrong because he went watchfully about his business making forays into the open. A couple of squirrels chased one another almost under its nose, and a chipmunk and any number of our neighborhood birds hurried around busily.

It was also striking how many cars went by without ever noticing the fox. Only two out of perhaps 15 braked and stared. I have a feeling we humans are far more attentively observed than any of our objects of “nature study.”

When we got home we read about foxes in the Handbook of Nature Study, and Older Daughter and I tried our hand at drawing. (Younger Daughter claimed she didn’t want to remember the experience, but she seemed interested while it was happening.) Older D. modeled her drawing after one of the videos we took.

She captured the sly, intelligent eyes very well.

Here’s my attempt.

It was modeled after this photo.

We also read about rabies and learned that it has three stages in animals. This fox was undoubtedly rabid, in the second or third stage. By that point it’s reached the nervous system and the animal is close to death.

We were sure we’d done the right thing, with all the pets and kids in the neighborhood especially, but even from the standpoint of the fox’s suffering. But as learning, it definitely had the bittersweet taste of real life and showed us the contrast between vaccinated domestic animals and wild animals when it comes to disease or injury. We also ended up teaching what to do in such a case — who to call, and what happens. We’ve never taken a field trip to the police station, but we got to see one in action and observe all the way-cool stuff he carries on his belt. (This was Younger Daughter’s favorite part — listing the items on the sheriff’s belt.)

For study (hopefully in the near future):

• Coyotes (we saw one beside the road earlier this week)
• Bald eagles (we have a pair and two juveniles nesting on an island on the river, and we’ve been seeing them regularly at a marsh visible from the highway)
• Bird’s nests (we’ve collected 6)
• Leaves (if it ever stops raining!)