Sly... Shy... Cunning...
Dusk to dawn goes Hunting...
During the day, sleeps under a root...
If the farmers catch him.... Red might get the Boot!
Fox and Geese quilt patterns ... Fables... Fairy tales.... and Nursery Rhymes all recognize the nature of this little creature... The Fox and the Grapes... the whiskered gentleman that taunted Jemima Puddle-Duck...
Brier Fox... Old Reynard... characters familiar from childhood stories...
The classic image of a fox running away with his large bushy tail outstretched behind him... with a chicken in his mouth is emblazoned in our mind... Only doing what a little fellow who lives in the woods has to do... Go out and search for his supper...
Most of the time though we observe them hunting in the field for mice ... slipping silently along the edge of the trees bordering the field...
Once as we watched out an east window at dusk... two young foxes came out and played in the grass with a charred stick from our firepit... chasing each other round and round... wrestling for it... hiding in the grass... pouncing... stealing it back and forth... guarding it...
....watching them was no different than watching two dogs at play... the instinct was the same... the enjoyment too... for them and us...
The Red Fox, Vulpes vulpes, 35-40" long, including long bushy tail with white tip... small, doglike. Rusty reddish above; white underparts, chin, throat. Prominent pointy ears. Back of ear, lower legs and feet, black... Very adaptable to most habitats and foods... Omnivorous, eats whatever is available...
One of the most widespread of all mammals.
approx. 4" x 4" watercolor on heavy sketchbook paper... inspired by a nursery rhyme illustration