Luxor4u

It's just incredible...

Have just watched last nights tape & BB & I feel unbelievably honoured that Mum & Missie both came down in to our garden and spent healing time together there. Missie was trying to cheer Mum up, play chasing & just being around her (and pigging out on sweet & sour pork!). Sadly there are no surviving cubs, they wouldn't have left them for so long, they were there for over an hour.
Mum wanted to talk again at 4.25 but I was asleep. Will try to talk again tonight.
I may have said before but foxes don't seem to have all the same emotions as us. Self awareness etc. & because the cubs hadn't lived she seemed to accept that she was no longer pregnant, but her eyes were very poignant at times!
I wish it could have been better news but I am so glad that we have been able to give her a sanctuary to help her at difficult times. Missie was so good & maybe Mum will have another litter at the right time, March not November.
I know many would say they are only animals and we shouldn't get so emotionally involved but their ability to share their life & emotions make them so special.

I get emotional over the hedgehogs in my garden and today I was given six rescued newts by my neighbour who asked me to give them sactuary in my ponds - can you imagine what i would be like if I had foxes too.

(I have a whole colony of breeding newts )

Now you have upset us with your b****ing newts. We have been trying to get newts in our ponds for several years. Now we have lost all our fish, Herons took most so we sent the last few to M-in-L for sanctuary we were hoping that newts might join our frogs. Apparantly you can only legally move very young newts as the adults always return to the same location to breed.

I know that this line is about foxes but I shall give you a quick word about the newts. (A whole bypass was held up three miles from me at Wymondham because of a colony of newts).

I did not know that I had them until we cleared out one of the ponds in the spring. It had become silted up so that is was nearly half filled with soft mud and there was little room for the fish to move about. We caught the fish (difficult job) and then pumped out the water. This left us with about a foot depth of foul smelling mud that had to be lifted out manually bucket by bucket. Each bucket full of mud had something wriggling in it. Newts. There were dozens of them. We cleaned out the pond (leaving a few inches of mud for things to burrow in) filled it full of water, treated if with fungicide and then popped the fish and all of the newts back in. The frogs all jumped back in within minutes.

So, to get to my point BBLUX, you might already have newts that you do not even know are there. The newts that my neighbour brought me had been trying to hibernate under an old growbag that he was just about to throw out.

Unfortunately not LL. We emptied the pond right out, removed inches of sludge, which we kept in buckets (smelt lovely!) to give anything time to escape, lots of larvae which we put back & a few frogs but no newts.
Watched more of the tape after we posted last night & were amazed to see Roley & DB down. Haven't seen Roley since he showed up in Sept when Missie was attacked. They greeted each other & took turns with the food.
Mum kept talking during the evening, (we were watching a film but had to keep stopping it! )
Asking Why? "Don't know, maybe for best as winter is not a good time for young cubs to start going out"
Mum said we would all have looked after them
Had she done something wrong? NO.
Had it happened to me? Yes & I had healthy cub afterwards.
She says whole family back for her, said we had seen the boys, she said Kinkie was there too.
Asked for special food which we prepared & then they didn't come down!
She has decided to make a new earth, she had identified some tunnels. I think they all got stuck in to it last night.

The other morning had the pleasure of seeing 2 foxes playing on my way to the bus stop, they did see me and stopped, looked and walked into a garden still keeping an eye on me as they went.

Wills,

I presume you saw these in daylight or under street lights?
They were probably urban foxes which seem less concerned about being seen. Our foxes are true rural creatures and avoid all chances of being seen by people. They only venture out at night and will hide the moment they hear voices in the lane.
That is why we feel so priviledged that they trust us and spend time in the garden under the red lights (we have moved on from infrared and they seem unconcerned) which give us good views of most of the garden through the camera.

Yes BBLUX it was about 5am. I bet you spend hours watching them when the appear that would be a great sight.

5AM! :oo the gravyard shift. Be careful at this time of year with all these spells amd monsters about

Seriously, we record the nights activity as they tend to come anywhere from midnight to 4:30am depending on their hunting success. In the summer they would come earlier because hunting was easier. We are not a primary feeding source but just a quite sanctuary place where they can relax and nibble on their favorites. We do feel a bit like a take away sometimes though when Mum contacts Fablux during the evening and suggests what she fancies that night

We review the tape the following evening over a drink before dinner. It's a nice way to unwind from the day.

Sounds wonderful, I have not seen our foxes in a while, hope they pop by soon.

Kinkie came down just before midnight & was making a noise, he has a funny little gruff sound he makes when he talks to our cat, but there seemed to be some sort of commotion as well.I was just going off to sleep, then became wide awake & still am!
Not all good having foxes around
We've improved the lighting so BB should be able to upload some more stills shortly.

I'm going to ply her with alcohol tonight...well more than usual and hope she sleeps through

I have added 3 more images into Fablux's personal album captured from the video's of last week. Missy has really filled out into a beautiful adult female now. Her winter coat is developing now and makes her look bigger than she actually is.

Fablux says that they have been busy digging out the new deeper winter Earth. More from her later.

Missie linked like an excited child last night, she wanted to show me an image of something that had really amused her (yes they do have a sense of humour). She had seen one of her brothers get covered in mud all over his back whilst going through the tunnel & she thought he looked really funny - he did!!
Mum had identified the potential new earth some time ago but hadn't got round to sorting/digging it out, her tough pregnancy meant she didn't feel well enough so having the whole family around and helping was really good for her. I don't know whether it is normal for the whole family to help out or not, but they are a pretty special family.

I really enjoy reading these installments FabbyLux...! Makes me feel quite humbled. Hope you 'sleep' well...

Mum came down whilst I was posting, (there was a break in the rain). A firework went off and she mentally shrugged & said "Its in the sky, I know that so I'm not scared", she jumped though, we all did it was one of the really loud ones. Missie loves the lights. I explained they were harmless when she was worried about Missie being out Saturday night. They seem to go off every night, the latest at 1.15a.m. Sure that's illegal!

PS: what are you doing to that boy in the hot tub or has Dabby grown up from sitting at your feet?

PPS: one bottle of wine consumed with paracetamols so should sleep (BB added)

from Fablux's album

We have just watched Thursday nights tape and had a visit from a very cute young fox, obviously one of this years litters, probably born at the normal time, March rather than January which ours were. He is much smaller & quite fluffy. Came down very timidly at first but then gained in confidence, cleared up all the remainder of the food on the table & hedgehog slab.
Hope to capture a still of him on Monday & post that up. If he becomes a regular visitor we will have to name him. Mum seemed to recognise him when I showed him to her through the video, felt he was possibly her sisters cub?
Don't know how our own male's will react, Missie will probably be pleased to have him around

Will be waiting Fab.....

I may have to let BBLux out of the shed, he has the technology to do it!:(