Last week, Larkspur and I took a walk to the beaver pond in our woods. It was late in the day, nearing evening. We’ve been visiting this pond for many years and often see the beavers, along with geese, herons, and bald eagles. On this evening, something came swimming near where we were standing, a curious creature that would swim a ways and then pop its head up to look at us, then swim a bit more before doing the same thing again. The only swimming mammals we’ve seen there are beavers, so that is what my brain thought it must be seeing. Except beavers don’t swim or behave that way. I told Lark, “That’s a river otter!” while also not believing it could be true. But as we watched it was clear that it was indeed an otter.
I was in quite a state after this encounter, otters having been one of my favorite animals since back in the second grade when I checked out the same book on baby otters from the school library every time I had the opportunity. I came home and texted my mom, my dad, and a friend or two. I emailed Keats at college. I went back the following evening with a camera, but I don’t have a great zoom lens so all I got was the image above. If you zoom in, you can see that it’s not a beaver. It’s an otter. Proof for those in my family that doubted me. (Ahem, Jonny.)
Speaking of Jonny, he told me a few days ago that if he had a less reasonable wife, he’d have a pet baby fox now…
I had just pulled up to Mabel’s ballet school when Jonny called to tell me that our neighbor had trapped a few fox kits that were living under his workshop. The neighbor was planning to shoot them and did I think Jonny should intervene? Obviously, I couldn’t tell him to stay out of it, not that he would have anyway. During Mabel’s class I started making phone calls and got in touch with a wildlife rehabilitator all the while getting updates from Jonny. It was a tricky situation because we didn’t have all the details and our neighbor was not flexible on how he wanted the situation handled beyond being willing for us to remove the kits.
The short story and what we weren’t able to piece together right away, is that he had barricaded the kits under the workshop, excluding their mother. I don’t want to vilify him, and don’t believe he realized the mother was separated from the kits. His concern was for his nearby chickens. We keep chickens as well and deal with losses from foxes every year and are in the process of putting in additional fencing to try to help with that. And while we hate when our chickens are taken, we live in a rural area on the edge of a large forest and this is the foxes’ natural habitat. They were here first and they aren’t going anywhere.
After ballet, I headed to the neighbor’s house. I brought raw ground beef per the rehabilitator’s advice to feed the kits. (We weren’t sure of their age at this point.) We fed the three that had been trapped and soon we started hearing others under the workshop. Some began to approach the opening to the outdoors because they smelled the meat and were starving. Jonny climbed into the crawl space and retrieved four more kits, for a total of seven. We fed them, and then bringing some of our feral cat experience into play, set things up to use them as bait to try to catch their mother so we could relocate them all to our property. Upon checking early the next morning, there was no evidence that the mother had come back. After a long conversation with a second rehabilitator, we decided that she would come get the kits and we would use trail cams to see if the mother came back to the area that night. If she did, we would reevaluate. The mama never did show up again and I am incredibly grateful to Elizabeth of FoxTales Wildlife Rehab for taking these babies in. (Elizabeth posts lots of pictures and videos on her Facebook page if you are interested. She has posted videos of the kits she took from us and it is so nice to see them.)
p.s. Jonny was (mostly) joking about keeping a baby fox, though I’ve actually never seen him quite so taken with a creature. Keeping foxes as pets is legal in some states, but not in Virginia. I’m also of the mindset that what makes encounters like these so special, so extraordinary is the untouchable nature of wildlife. Under most circumstances, wild animals belong in the wild. This was hard though; we were all deeply affected. The kits were in our care for less than 24 hours and we only interacted with them to feed them, but we’ll never forget the experience. Mabel probably took it the hardest, not because she wanted so much to keep one (though of course she did), but because she wanted them reunited with their mother. She spent the afternoon in bed crying after I told her that the rehabilitator was coming for them. But after she watched them leave in good hands, she recovered quickly.
“This was once in a lifetime, Mabel.” I think she understood.
As for my otter, I haven’t seen it since the evening I took that blurry photo. Perhaps it was just passing through.
Kimberly O'Donoghue says
what beautiful animals thanks for sharing and thank you for intervening and understanding the circumstance. Years ago when newspapers were popular there was a wildlife contributor and he was writing about a woman who was freaked because there was a fox in her back yard and she called him to tell him so, he quickly retaliated with excuse me ma’am but you are in the foxes back yard! This is a fact so few understand. When you have chickens, you are going to entertain foxes. It’s our job to protect them from the wild animals who instinctively want them.
Rita Moeller says
About 11 years ago our “barn cat”–more feral than friendly left us 5 baby kittens in our attic. My daughter, affectionately known as, “Doctor Doolittle” was able to reach up and lift them all down. We put them in the bathtub with a pie plate of milk as they were exceedingly hungry.I had heard them crying for over a day before we found them. Their mother never returned either. My granddaughter, Monica, who was 4 at the time, thought we were going to keep them all and was so disappointed when her mother found a woman who took them in. Somewhat like a wildlife rehabilitator. We bought back the long-haired, extra feisty kitten when they went up for sale. Yes, we had to buy back OUR kitten! But it was worth it. Years later when we replaced our deck we found our barn cat’s decomposed body. We think she lost a fight over cat food to a rather large raccoon who I had had misfortune of confronting!
Kelli Ramey says
An enchanted life….
Gretchen Joanna says
Wonderful. Thank you.
Emanuela Scuccato says
Thank you for all.
Lori Hendricks says
So beautiful!!!! Thank you for sharing with us all !!!!
Myriam says
What a beautiful experience! Living in a rural area has such perks, doesn’t it? On a completely different (albeit animal related) note, I am re-reading Sylvia’s farm. I remember it from a book suggestion of yours a while back. The first time I read it, I dearly wanted sheep. Now I have a small flock of fiber sheep and reading it again is a joy. Just wanted to say – thanks for sharing your thought here! It’s so great to read a blog that is « just » a blog. I wish there were more like yours to be found.
Myriam
olivia demkowicz says
I am sure you have read “Wild Animals I Have Known. The portion of the book where he relays the story of the fox kits and the mother is heatbreaking, I will never forget it. A wonderful book but powerful and moving.
Dawn Harris says
We have had several similar wildlife rescue situations over the years. I have taken the Wildlife Rehabilitation coursework but am not certified so we have relied on wonderful rehabilitators in the area to help the orphaned or injured animals we have found. Thank God for them! It is a hard job and impossible not to immediately get attached to those wonderful creatures. I have always told my children that is one of the many reasons God put us here – to care for all of His creation, both large and small. One of my never-will-forget-it moments was sitting with a few day old fawn who had become overheated on the side of a road. I moved her into the shade and just sat with her till she cooled off and was able to amble off into the woods, hopefully, in the direction of her Mama. For years afterward, I always wondered if a doe I saw was that baby. I like to think so. You will never forget you fox babies. Thank you for sharing the precious photos!
Bobbie Jean says
We are grateful that there are people like you on the planet.
Be well.
Elli says
Oh, my heart. What an experience. So very glad that they have found a good rehab home to grow in (and then out of). Yes, it is very sad that the mother could not come back to them, but thankfully they were saved … we live in an urban environment with lots of woods and lakes and keeping our hens safe from predators was tricky!! (We lost three over the years). We have fox, opossum, raccoon, hawks, eagles, owls … and that’s just what I saw in our yarden …
cirila says
They are so cute!
Bee says
Thank you SO much for saving these little foxes! I’m with Mabel…the fact that the mother didn’t return makes me super sad. But…I’m sure they’re well taken care of now, too.
I have a lot to say about your neighbor but I won’t.
Instead, let me just say wild animals are awesome (in both senses of that word) and I can’t believe you saw an otter! Lucky you! 🙂
Barbara says
You are being good stewards of that which the Lord has put in your path. God bless you all.
Lisa G. says
Oh my goodness, how precious they are!! What an experience.
Dorina says
Such special encounters! So glad the kits are in good hands, and I wish good luck to the river otter; so exciting to see one! Sweet Mabel, I can understand how important it is to reunite with Mama Fox . . Thank you for sharing these touching stories Ginny.
Loretta C McCray says
You are big hearted and taking care of all of God’s creatures matters! My family experienced a similar baby fox rescue years ago and it is one of my fondest homeschool, family togetherness, and spiritual moments of my life. May God bless you and your family!