I was sitting on the arm of my sofa this morning around 7am, trying to wake up, looking out the adjacent window at my fairly new groundcover roses and just caught in my peripheral vision what I thought was a regular grey barn cat of our neighbor's that wanders the neighborhood. The neighbor brought 2 barn cats up from his rural place to kill rodents. I glanced to my left and I realized it was a GRAY FOX! I got perfectly still so as not to be seen, as he was just on the other side of the window! He jumped off the side of the porch through the privet hedge and into the very rose bed I was watching. He never turned his head toward me. He stood there for a minute, ran across the sidewalk, crossed the adjacent flower bed, heisted his leg to urinate on a crepe myrtle trunk and scurried on across the street and into that neighbor's foundation hedges. He had a line of black fur down his tail one end to the other, which I've net seen on the red-tail foxes we see down at our cabin property. He was mostly grey all over with tan just on his lower legs and face. Guess he was hunting for something for breakfast. Sadly, I had no camera at hand.
Some may recall we had a Red Fox make an appearance 2 days in a row during the Texas Snowpocalypse in February, sauntering back and forth on our front sidewalk in the snow/ice each evening. We found his den/hole when we cut down the dead Casts Iron Plant leaves that encircle all our trees. We filled that hole up with rocks so I wouldn't twist an ankle in it (I'm good at that), but perhaps he's digging another den somewhere around here, as we occasionally see little poop piles on that same sidewalk or the driveway perpendicular to it. Just yesterday my husband said he found a small pile about the size a mid-size dog would leave way up at the head of our driveway by the garage door. So I think a new Mr. Fox may be "checked-in" at a local "hotel" for a short stay. Hope I get see him again. I think such moments are so special.
