Fox!

We had a rather unusual visitor to the garden the other day...





Foxes are a pretty common sight in our area - there's lots of countryside on our doorstep and it's rather unusual not to see the odd fox padding along the road at dusk. That said, we don't often see them in the middle of the afternoon, and certainly not taking a kip on our front lawn!

I'd come downstairs to speak to my mum about something, and as I walked into the room, she got up from the sofa and glanced out the window and almost simultaneously we both spotted the visitor.

For once I didn't have my phone on me, so I raced upstairs and grabbed it from the charger, along with my DSLR, just in case. I needn't have rushed, as the fox was in no hurry to go anywhere.



She (we think it was a vixen, anyway) was sitting quite happily in the middle of the grass, all curled up like a cat in front of the fire.



Occasionally she'd look up and have a little scratch...





She knew we were watching, but showed absolutely zero concern.





Annoyingly, we had the blinds down, and while she probably wouldn't have been bothered by it, we didn't want to raise them, just in case, so my photos weren't as good as they could have been as I had to slot the lens between the slats. (it probably made me look like a right creep actually, now that I think about it, ahaha!) So that's why the bottom of some of the images look almost faded.





Every now and again a car would go past and she'd look up, or flick an ear back to listen, but really, nothing seemed to faze her.





At one point our next door neighbour arrived home in his car, slammed his door shut, then opened and shut the boot, before walking loudly along the gravel path, and didn't notice the fox sitting ten feet from his front door, casually watching him go about his business. XD



Eventually she got to her feet...



...had a good yawn...





...and an even better stretch...







...and with a final twirl, she was off down the road.







 I was slightly concerned that she'd perhaps been in a car accident at some point as she had a very noticeable limp when she walked away, and there was something odd about her lower jaw, specifically her bottom lip. She seemed otherwise ok though, so I hope it's nothing to worry about.
 
It was such a privilege to be able to sit by the window and watch her sleep. Foxes are one of my favourite animals and a fleeting glimpse is usually all I ever get to see, so this was lovely.