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

[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.