Poor Fox

 

A truly wildlife garden is, of course impossible in the middle of London. I can't hope to have a hedgehog to help eat the snails (hedgehogs need about two miles to roam in at night) and I have no browsing animals to keep the grass down and the shrubs clipped. All the same, there is a fox much at home in the garden, not to mention a grey squirrel, mice, toads, frogs, bees, beetles, butterflies, moths, a good variety of birds and other things I don't know about. 

Nature being what it is,  there is always something in trouble or dying and it is not always easy to know what to do. Last week I woke up early to find the fox curled up on the lawn right in front of the kitchen door. This struck me as really unusual - usually a fox would not be  caught asleep  so near to the house. 

                               

At breakfast time it was still there but got stiffly up when it became aware of me and limped off with a very sore back leg. 

                                        

What to do?  I know this fox.  I remember it as a cub when there were two of them. It visits the garden several times a day and often at night. and sunbathes on the  roof of the shed. 

                                             

The advice online was to feed it dog food for a few days in case it was too lame to hunt and to call in a specialist charity if it didn't get better. So I laid an egg in the grass but the egg was ignored and I didn't see the fox again. I could hardly call the charity (Tiggiwinkles) as I didn't know where the creature was. But I fretted for a few days. Then one morning it appeared again as good as new. My relief was slightly tempered by the fact that it had crapped on my new slate path - but that's wilding for you.  

Meanwhile the robin sings its wonderful autumn song just as the light begins to fade - fancy being such a pretty bird and being blessed with a song  like that into the bargain.