{"id":28029,"date":"2019-02-12T18:06:07","date_gmt":"2019-02-12T18:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/?p=28029"},"modified":"2019-02-24T00:51:34","modified_gmt":"2019-02-24T00:51:34","slug":"fox-hopping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/fox-hopping\/","title":{"rendered":"Fox Hopping"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is going to be another catch-up post, mainly on Wolfy our one constant fox visitor. I’ve also been tweaking the website so that there is now a new header and some more slight changes to fonts and overall layout. Most of this is the result of updating my theme (Photocrati) which has allowed more flexibility and improved performance with better back-end security. <\/p>\n

Enough of the tech-speak> here’s a quick round-up of fox activity.<\/p>\n

There are a couple of regular cats that share the garden, and one in particular who camps out at night. It’s a beautiful fluffy thing and while there are occasional run-ins with the foxes they generally steer around each other. Except when they don’t. In this shot Wolfy had been laying down across the path while I was taking photos. The cat was trying to get to the corner of the garden and rather than step around the fox it decided to give him a quick tap on his rump. Caught us both by surprise! The cat then ambled another two or three yards and sat down watching us. <\/p>\n

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Wolfy being pestered by a cat<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We’ve also been trying to tidy the place up a bit, taking down some overgrown shrubs, including an out of control privet. Here’s Wolfy admiring the job (half done at that stage).<\/p>\n

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Wolfy admiring our gardening<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Investigating garden cuttings<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Towards the latter part of January we had a lunar eclipse. I missed most of it, but did wake up just after totality and grabbed this shot at 5.45am. <\/p>\n

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Lunar eclipse<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The end of January saw us get a light covering of snow. This brought out one of the other foxes (one we don’t usually see). <\/p>\n

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Unknown fox in the snow<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A couple of nights later (and after a second snow-fall), I managed to get some pictures of Wolfy in the white stuff.<\/p>\n

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Wolfy in the snow<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Wolfy in the snow<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Wolfy in the snow<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Which brings me to the title of the blog. Somewhere on his travels Wolfy got himself injured. He picked up a very heavy limp on his right front leg, plus a cut on his head. This left him almost hopping about the garden.<\/p>\n

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Wolfy holding up injured leg.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I first spotted the injury on 4th February and he seemed to be struggling with it for about a week, though foxes are highly mobile even on three legs. Injuries like this are very common and pretty much an occupational hazard of being a fox. It’s all the climbing, jumping, scrambling over fences that places them at risk. Just about every fox we’ve known well has sported a limp at one time or another.<\/p>\n

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Wolfy running with injured leg (on far side\/front)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thankfully he’s fine now (only the slightest hint of a limp left).<\/p>\n

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His foot seems to have healed and he’s now placing it on the ground and letting it bear his weight.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Finally, here’s a clip of a couple of the more elusive foxes out in the snow.<\/p>\n