Visitor to the patio!

[bunn]

There is a fox cub sunbathing on my patio, right outside the kitchen door!

It can see me looking at it through the window and it hasn't run away.

Looks like it has mange - it keeps scratching and its back is all manky.



Awwww.

Poor little mite. He has run off now, so he's presumably not quite as ill as I thought when I first saw him. He has done a big poo by the grape vine, so I think he has been eating my grapes, (and possibly nipping in through the cat door for a spot of James Wellbeloved's best as well.)

I have shut the rabbits into their smaller securer pen. They are furious, but it seems like too much of a risk.

I've also sent off for some mange treatment from the National Fox Welfare Society. I know my neighbours have been trying to shoot the foxes, as they have been after their chickens and are distressingly mangey.

I don't think they have had a lot of luck though. If I can treat this little lad for mange I will do: if they later shoot him, too bad, but at least he won't be living in such discomfort. I do hope he will leave my bunnies alone though!

Comments

[pellegrina.livejournal.com]

Awww, bless. malaheed objects to my proposal to feed the foxes, as he says it will attract Vermin (I'd have thought the presence of foxes would discourage Vermin, personally) and that fox poo stinks, and our neighbours are trying to get rid of them out of concern for their three young children, so I don't feed them.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I don't want to feed them - the last thing they need to learn round here is that people are nice because I suspect a lot of people won't be.

I'm prepared to put out a few honey sandwiches with mange treatment on them to try to reduce the suffering of that particular individual, if he comes round this way again. I did wonder if he had been dumped by some helpful soul trying to 'relocate wildlife' from Plymouth or somewhere, as the sites on mange seem to suggest it is more likely to be an urban problem. Might be just more people reporting it in cities though of course.

[(Anonymous)]

I thought foxes WERE Vermin??? - Neuromancer

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I wasn't sure if there was a fixed definition, so I looked it up. There is a question recorded in Hansard about it from 2003. It says there is no legal definition of 'vermin'. It seems to be a rude word which can be applied to any animal, person or race that is annoying you.

Foxes in the UK are legally protected against poisoning and gassing, I learn - a restriction that would not apply to rats or cockroaches. For that matter, you can legally gas rabbits, though I don't think you can poison them.

Clearly the foxes are annoying my neighbours, but on the other hand, their cockerel is annoying me! So, six of one, half a dozen of the other.