Yet MORE Foxy Video....

Okay. As usual, this requires a rather lengthy preamble.

For a while a few years ago, I had a resident fox who spent many a winter's day curled up in a patch of sun up in the woods of the back yard. Snoring away. I have I don't know how much footage of him, but let's face it--after the initial "Oh, look, it's a fox!" watching an animal sleep is about as exciting as watching a person sleep. Which is to say, not very.

I like this particular footage for a couple of reasons, despite its shakiness. First, since it's early winter (hint: the snow!) the fox is in his glorious winter coat, so he looks like a painting fox and not like a sandy-colored scruffy-looking summer fox. Plus, he's actually MOVING. And the reason WHY he's moving is, off camera, he is being Chased.

By who, you ask? By Gimpy. Gimpy was a doe who pretty much lived in our back yard for the first six or seven years we lived here. I gave her such a cruel name because the first time I saw her I assumed she was a goner. She had this awful-looking growth hanging between her hind legs looking like a cow's udder and it interfered with her ability to move one of her hind legs. I took one look at this deer in the back yard and I thought, man, coyote chow fer shure!

But in a turnaround that Staggers the Nation, once again Mojo is proven WRONG WRONG WRONG. Not only did Gimpy survive, she survived for YEARS. And every year she had at least one and sometimes two fawns with her.And Gimpy was so trusting of humans if I went outside she and her kids never bothered to leave the yard. They'd just wander off to the woods and wait for me to be done with what I was doing. I was careful not to stare at them, and when the fawns were really little I could arouse their curiosity to the point where they would start to approach me. And Gimpy just watched.

On this particular day, I was just done taking some footage of Brer Raynard snoozing in the woods when I heard a funny hissing noise. I looked out again just in time to see the fox go running for his life, heading toward the house. There, stamping all over his bed, still hissing and cursing, stood Gimpy. I don't know if you've ever seen an angry deer before, but they are quite formidable.

Which is why the fox is looking particularly furtive and slinky. Also probably why he decides to defiantly mark the firepit with a small gift before running off elsewhere. Thank you Mister Fox!

As a side note, I haven't seen Gimpy in a couple of years. I suspect she has finally gone to the Deer Meadow in the sky...

Mojo