Soccer Dad

21st century (mangy) fox

For awhile now, our neighborhood has had a number of foxes.

Our neighbor accross the street once put her children's muddy shoes out front to dry. They disappeared. They turned up all chewed up. (Our neighbor took them to Nordstrom's to be repaired. In one of those classic cases of Nordstom's customer service, they replaced the shoes free of charge.)

In any case the continued presence of the foxes was of concern to the neighborhood and one family hired an exterminator to set traps to catch the foxes. (The City department of animal control and State department of natural resources wouldn't do anything, maintaining that foxes are nocturnal and afraid of humans so they presented no threat.) The exterminator noticed, though, that the foxes were mangy and posed a possible risk of transmitting mange or other diseases.

One of the traps was set in our backyard. One day when I went to take out the garbage I discovered that something had been caught. There was a rabbit and a squirrel in the cage. The squirrel did not look well. Later, the exterminator checked and opened the trap, the rabbit bounded away but the squirrel didn't. As I guessed, it was dead.

A few weeks ago the exterminator packed up the traps. I guess that they gave up. But the foxes are still around.

I took a picture yesterday. That discoloration towards its back is the mange. Given that foxes are nocturnal the fact that it's out during the day is likely a sign of declining health. And so I was able to get a picture of the fox, in an unlikely urban setting. (A neighbor told my wife that she no longer has rabbits in her yard because of the foxes. Apparently foxes are not conservationists.)

It just might be that nature will accomplish what the exterminator couldn't.

Blogdigger tags: Foxes, Mange, Baltimore City.