Is it a Dog, or a Badger, or What the Heck is It?

Discussion in 'Pets & Critters' started by Diane Lane, May 22, 2015.

  1. Diane Lane

    Diane Lane Veteran Member
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  2. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    When I was a kid, we raised a fox pup. Of course, we knew it was a fox. That fox was with us for a couple of years, although it was free to leave whenever it wanted to. I can't imagine a pet that would be as much fun as a fox.
     
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  3. Diane Lane

    Diane Lane Veteran Member
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    I don't think I've ever seen one in real life, unless it was at a zoo years ago. They mentioned an odor, do they have a particularly offensive odor? They look really cute, but I don't know anything at all about them. My Mom has one that visits her backyard.
     
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  4. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    No, not at all. Ours kept herself pretty clean; if anything, more so than the dogs. While she was tame, she was very tame. She'd jump into my arms, wrestle, and sleep with her head in my lap. Once she decided it was time to re-wild, she began spending more time away. After a while, when she was spending a few days away from home, she began to feel uncomfortable around people, by degrees, until finally she didn't return home.
     
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  5. Hannah Davis

    Hannah Davis Veteran Member
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    Well, I guess this could happen. The fox and the wolf are canines just like the dog. Only difference and its a big one they aren't dometicated animals like dogs can be. I can understand though why this family mistook this baby fox for a puppy.
     
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  6. Diane Lane

    Diane Lane Veteran Member
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    Ok, I wondered, @Ken Anderson because I'd never heard that about the smell before. Maybe it was 'in season', or perhaps Canadian foxes smell different? @Hannah Davis I certainly wouldn't have known from that tiny furry bundle that it was a fox, and might have rescued it myself, if I'd found it.
     
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  7. Richard Paradon

    Richard Paradon Supreme Member
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    It is nice to know that there are still people who care and will take in baby "somethings"! He sure grew up into a beautiful animal. @Ken Anderson Hopefully this is not a stupid question, but how long did you miss him when he left. Were you expecting him to come back home or knew that this would happen. Sorry, city boys don't know too much about the wild.
     
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  8. Tom Locke

    Tom Locke Veteran Member
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    Here in the UK, we have increasing numbers of urban foxes. I've seen a few in Edinburgh and one of the most remarkable sights I've ever seen happened at about five o'clock one evening when I was walking from my office to Haymarket station. Haymarket is Edinburgh's second (and smaller) station, but it's in the city centre and gets very busy. There were lots of people around and coming in the opposite direction was a fox, totally unconcerned by all the people.
     
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  9. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    When I was a teacher, I would tell my students that there is no such thing as a stupid question -- just stupid people who ask them. Just kidding, and fortunately I wasn't teaching young children. As it was, I very much missed having a pet fox but, as it happened, she separated herself by degrees, so it wasn't as if she was suddenly gone. At first, she would stay out all night, whereas before, she would usually be found sleeping in our porch, especially in the winter. Then, she'd be away for a couple of days at a time, and act as if she was just a little afraid of us when she returned. I could still coax her up to me, but there was no more jumping into my arms. Eventually, she might come close enough to take food from my hands but she quit letting me pet her. Then finally, she didn't return but, by then, we knew that she was simply becoming what she was -- a fox. Sometimes, we'd see a fox around the barn at night, and figured it was probably her, but she never bothered our chickens. More than a year after we had last seen her, we pulled into our driveway one night to see a fox running away from the dog food bowl, and figured she had probably maintained a good relationship with our dogs, since they weren't barking at her, and that she had likely been coming by for a free meal at night.
     
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  10. Diane Lane

    Diane Lane Veteran Member
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    Ha, it sounds as if she had the best of both worlds. She knew where a free meal was when she needed it, but was able to go back and blend in our in nature. I'm surprised I haven't heard of any fox sightings here, there have been wolves reported, as well as the coyotes.
     
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  11. Pat Baker

    Pat Baker Supreme Member
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    We have a fox in our neighborhood that is seen a few nights a week walking around, it seems to be a good size fox. I have not seen it but members of my family have seen it. We used to have a german shepard that was part wolf, she was a beautiful animal, I was truly sorry when we lost her, she was the only pet we ever had that I liked.
     
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  12. Diane Lane

    Diane Lane Veteran Member
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    I still haven't done any research on fox, been too busy. Are they normally aggressive, or leave people alone, as long as they're not confronted?
     
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  13. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    They will fight back if they feel like they are cornered but otherwise fox are not aggressive toward people. They kill cats though.
     
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  14. Diane Lane

    Diane Lane Veteran Member
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    Ahhh, good to know, since I feed the strays, and they pretty much live here. One was killed by a coyote (off my property, it was the stray who wandered quite a bit, and visited occasionally) about a month ago. I know that's the order of things, but I probably would have killed the coyote if I'd been near and seen it. I've started feeding the strays in the backyard at night, in the hope that they will stay there, where it's fenced, and they're safer.
     
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  15. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Fox are beautiful animals, and I can't blame them for being what they are, but I probably lost Bird and Obadiah to a fox a year and a half ago, since I learned - after the fact - that a fox had taken a cat nearby. I sure miss those kitties.
     
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