The Gods are NOT smiling on me today. I've been trying to get a photo of my little gray fox visiting the yard ever since the Texas Snowpocalypse freeeze in February. He usually saunters down my front sidewalk aroung dusk, or 7:00-7:30 pm, like clockwork. Tonight I was determined to bathe in mosquito repellant (skeeters are terrible lately) and just sit on the front porch until he appeared. Got my better Lumix camera in hand only to learn the battery needed recharging. Grrrr. So I came back inside real quick and got my little Canon SureShot as it was nearly 7:30. Would you believe when the fox emerged THAT camera battery was nearly dead, too!!!! Grrr! I would push the shutter but it hesitated every attempted shot, flashed the dreaded red battery symbol and would then take the shot, albeit blurry. Grrrr! No time to run back in and get my spare battery for that camera! I persisted; the camera resisted. The fox was on his way to hunt for dinner. Anyway, maybe next time I can share a much better photo of him with you.
Here are the only two shots that were not so blurry you couldn't make him out. Clearly a gray fox as the black fur streak on his tail is just barely visible in one of the shots. He was very small actually, maybe 7-10#, roughly the size of my late rat terrier. He had the classic cat-like facial features when viewed head on with the appropriate facial markings of a gray fox. His body and head seemed so tiny, which really surprised me. He was not the least bit afraid of me as he clearly looked up at me more than once on my porch perch desperately trying to get the camera to try to take a couple shots. He sauntered on his usual route, down the cross sidewalk, over to my driveway and on to the neighbor's yard. He looked back at me a couple more times before he disappeared down the neighborhood. Seems so odd to see them in a city of nearly 60,000.
I'm more determined than ever I AM going to get a good shot of this little guy. Going out tomorrow (mosquitoes are too bad right now) to closely inspect that flower bed underneath the new spring-emerged Cast Iron Plants where he emerged to see if I can find his "den". We filled the lst one we found in March with rocks, as I twist my ankle in every yard hole. He may have removed them and dug it out again. I KNOW he emerged from that bed and did not come across either street on my corner. When I first saw him, he seemed to emerge upwards, as if from the ground itself. I'll find it. He seems solitary, so I doubt it's a female with kits, though it's that time of year. They mate February - April as a rule.
