Late last
Sunday night when I went to put Chico and Minette to bed I discovered she was
missing. I had no idea how she got out
and I couldn't be certain I had seen her early evening when I first let them
out into the back yard. I searched
everywhere round the house, all the sheds, barns, the summer house then went
out into the garden, orchard, paddock and up and down the road. At 2 am I gave up and left the gates to the
back yard open and the door to the workshop open ( she wasn't allowed in there
and loved to dash in at every opportunity).
She didn't appear overnight and was still missing this morning, Thursday
2 May. My Sunday morning volunteer
couldn't remember seeing her so we established she must have gone out when I opened
the back gate thinking I had shut her in for the night. How she managed it I still don't know as I'm
always so careful but foxes are so quick and light footed, like little ghosts
flitting behind you and I assume she followed me out in the dark or hid in the
shadows and trotted out when I fed the wild foxes. Her behaviour was so out of character as when
she and Chico got out once before they just walked round the house and went
back in after about 10 minutes, but that was during daytime.
This morning
I had given up hope. Jonathan Cainer's
Virgo horoscope yesterday had talked of disappearances not being truly
disappearances and it had given me such a boost, I felt it related to my
beloved Minette. When she still hadn't
reappeared I found it hard to continue to believe she was still alive. Then at about 10.30 this morning I received a
phone call from Jenny Francis, a supporter in the nearby village of Akeley,
telling me she had opened her front door and found a fox sitting on her
doorstep, seeming to want to come into the house and unconcerned by her or her
young son. The fox ran off when a
neighbour drove up and his dog barked but only went and curled up on a path
behind the houses. Jenny knew I rescued
foxes and also thought the fox seemed tame and had met my own foxes, Minette,
Chico, Billie and Amber here at the Sanctuary so immediately contacted me.
As soon
as I turned onto the path I recognised my Minnie and just slowly walked up to
her, talking all the time, and picked her up covering her face with kisses, so
relieved to find her safe and sound.
Minette
is safely back home with her companion Chico, who had missed her terribly as I
had. She seems none the worse for wear
apart from a very slight limp which is probably just a very minor strain. Although she had come to me 7 years ago at
about 2 months old therefore had no experience of living in the wild, Minette
had travelled 3.5 miles safely. She had
always point blank refused to eat raw food apart from defrosted day old
chicks, only played with a dead squirrel
rather than eat it although wild foxes regard squirrels as a rare delicacy, and
preferred cake to any savoury food, so I have no idea if she had had anything
to eat since early Saturday night and so far I have only given her one chick
and a small amount of flapjack (her favourite) as I don't want her to be
sick. A little and often over the rest
of today should keep her healthy and happy.
It is
truly wonderful that of all the homes in Akeley she should travel to the centre
of that village and choose Jenny's doorstep to sit on. Someone or something must have been watching
over Minette. I'm not a religious person
but I am a believer in a higher power, a basically kind Universe as well as the
protection of those who have passed over and angels. It is a miracle that this little vixen with
her slight brain damage and no experience of the wild should have survived four
days away from home and I am so very grateful to whatever power protected her
until I could bring her home. I adore my
foxes; all those I have lived with over the past 25 years, like Algy for whom
the Trust is named, have been such wonderful companions, clever, affectionate,
full of fun.
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