To help a mangy scrap of fox UPDATE

[HarrietKettleWasHere]

If anyone remembers/is interested!

(Also I know foxes aren't popular with everyone, please no fox naysers)

Briefly, in March or so I had a beautiful fox called Russel visit me where I live in Wandsworth. Then he turned up with a little scrappy mate. Thought she was a he at first, a really poor thing, all bald across her poor back. I also thought she was a funny shape- she looked very lumpy. I felt awful for her, and got some mange medication, which I gave her as drops on food every single night (foxes are fantastic time keepers if there's a test involved) and she started to improve.

One night she wasn't there, and was away for a few nights. I was so sad. Russel was still showing up though, and would carry his treat off.

Anyway after three nights, she was back- with four little babies in tow. I got to see them all grow up. Every week or so, one of them drops by to say hello. This is Vicky, who came over last night.

💓

Needed a cheer up this morning and your lovely photos have made me smile. Thankyou

Oh I love them!! OP I am ridiculously jealous, they are beautiful.

Brilliant update. Enjoyed your previous thread. Such a lovely thing to do.

Beautiful photos Harriet - the babies are lovely! :) thanks for the update, loved your old thread.

Harriet lovely update. What's it like being a grandma?!
I remember your thread well. My DD's magical moment in London was not the Eye or the aquarium or Greenwich. It was holding our breath as we saw an urban fox saunter across the park in the moonlight.

I remember your mangy fox thread and I'm so pleased to see your update. Foxes are beautiful and you are lovely not to let the animal suffer.

Lovely update op, I was on your original thread they look gorgeous

Funnily enough we had an adult run in front of us in broad daylight at lunch time today, always a lovely treat to see

Aw, thanks everyone, I was so privaliged to get to see them grow up! They are so sweet.

Aww how bittersweet! You did a lovely thing just a shame that urban foxes have become so numerous and probably are vermin

They're not classed as vermin actually, and they're really good at controlling their own numbers, which is why previous (cruel and unnecessary) culls didn't work.

I'm glad. I love them. They have short and probably difficult lives in urban environments a lot of the time which makes me really sad.

Aww they're beautiful. I'm quite jealous of your visitors

We moved house last year to a more rural area. I get so excited seeing all the different wildlife I did not realise I would ve blessed with.

We have a resident bat named "boris" who flies past our front window like clockwork every night. If I miss him I go to the back of the house to say hello whilst he is flying round and round the garden. My DP thinks Im mad!

My son has the back bedroom overlooking the farm and moors so gets to see the newborn lambs, birds of prey and a poor 3 legged fox he said.

I was in hospital last week and asked my son every night if he had seen boris

I LOVE foxes. I live in Streatham and we have plenty. Some by the river where I live and they make quite the noise some nights! But watching the babies gambolling around in the moonlight has been precious.

Down the back of the railway embankment in the mornings from my train I often see a family of four snoozing in the sunshine. It really sets me up for the day - they are so beautiful.

Foxes Unearthed by Lucy Jones is a really interesting book that explains a lot of foxy misconceptions and is worth a read.

Viva la vixen!

What a lovely story from Harriet. So nice when people care about foxes and try to help them. It restores my faith in human nature. I actually volunteer at The Fox Project. I was there earlier today cleaning out cages and feeding and moving some of our patients. It's very rewarding (but at times can also be very sad).

Aw that's amazing that you volunteer at the Fox project. I love seeing their stories on Facebook. I know it's not always a positive outcome but they do such fab work.

Oh aren't they gorgeous! I love foxes. What a lovely thing you've done for them.

Awww, this is gorgeous! :) Well done, OP!
Btw, what do foxes like to eat? Is there anything they shouldn't eat? Thanks!

I have four Fox cubs that regularly play in mine and neighbours gardens while mum watches. Dad usually drops by every now and then.

See the dad Fox very often in the daylight, he's a big bugger.

I don't live in a rural area at all and the foxes love to chase each other through the gravel. I'm up at 4am for work so usually get an hour of them before they go home and I go to work.

Just a little worried they might take a liking to my elderly Jack Russell who prefers to spend all day outside.

They will eat Anything they get their paws on! But I never fed them cooked bones. Raw bones are fine but cooked ones can't be broken down properly and it could cause a lot of damage to them if they splinter off. I'd usually have done raw chicken wings around or I'd save the fatty bits from a roast.

Scrap adored cheese. Russel was very partial to a jam donut (originally meant for Scrap to administer the drops but she never had a sweet tooth) when the babies were little I left out cat food.

I keep chicken-ham in the fridge now for any late-night visitors- it's a treat but not substantial enough that they'd depend on it for a meal. They are very lazy as predators and much prefer leftovers as food. Although round here, and probably in a lot of areas, they've kept the rat population right down.

Oooooo I loved this thread. Thank you for updating. They are beautiful

Thank you for the update and lovely pictures. Gorgeous foxes and Vicky is so sweet. Have a great weekend

Hi, we had a fox come into our Garden for 4 years. She was really friendly and unafraid of us. She came in the daytime too and would just lie down on the grass near us.

She had Cubs every year and would bring them into the garden too. It was lovely. We called her Mrs Fox.

Last year she had 2 cubs and we saw them in April. But by June she disappeared and one of her cubs came into the garden but was a bit nervous. However, we left food for him and he gradually became less nervous. One day I noticed that he was becoming a bit mangy. So I got some stuff from the fox project and dosed his food. He began to get better and then I read that the medicine for dogs called Stronghold was the best remedy for mange and cured it in a few days.

I approached a few vets but they wouldn't prescribe it without seeing the fox (some hope)! So looked on the Internet and purchased it from here atlanticpetproducts.com/. I can thoroughly recommend it. You only have to give one dose mixed into food. His mange went and you could see the difference.

It was easy for me to be sure the fox ate the food because he came into the garden to be fed.

A couple of months later he disappeared too. I heard that the garden centre nearly next door to us had a policy of calling in a company to get rid of the foxes. I don't know if they re-housed them or exterminated them. We've had foxes in the garden since then but none friendly enough to come in the daytime. I miss our Mrs Fox.

I became less keen on them after my neighbours cat was attacked by one! They are beautiful!

We had a young one try and come in a friends house bold as brass as we were sat there with French doors open - we did wonder if it had been fed somewhere?

HarrietKettleWasHere I had completely forgotten about those books until now, and am delighted to be reminded of them. I loved them so much.

I'm assuming all the fox lovers on here know about www.instagram.com/juniperfoxx/...?