Irresistible Or What?

Photos Copyright: Maggie May

I am always quite eager to go out for a little journey if my son asks me to accompany him and it doesn't take much to make me happy!

Some how or other, on such a journey, we often find ourselves in a very large pet shop because Sam knows that I love to look around. On this occasion, I did need a few rabbit supplies, so after I had picked out what I needed, I went to look at the rabbit enclosures and spent some time looking at them. There must be quite a turnover of rabbits because they seem to have different ones there every time I look.

There is always a small section where unwanted rabbits are put up for adoption, which is quite sad. Usually there is a note to say the owner had to move and so couldn't take them to the new home.

Anyway, on this visit something else caught my son's attention and he asked me if I had my camera handy, which I had.

These baby degus were perched on top of a rope ladder and snuggled up together. They stayed like that for the whole of the time we were there. There was a fourth little chap who for some reason didn't want to sit on the ladder next to his siblings but he seemed to be desperate for company and followed our hands around his enclosure. He let us tickle him.

My son decided to take a leaflet on their upkeep and care. I was most surprised by this.

Goodness knows if it will end up with him allowing the girls to have pets.

I had quite a few comments about my injured fox in the last post. I haven't seen the fox since but there is a strong smell of fox in my garden, so it obviously visits, probably at night. I wish I knew how to get rid of the aroma of fox.

Some of you thought the fox might be under the shed. However there is only a couple of inches of space over concrete which means it would be impossible to access and the floor of the shed is intact. The Officer from the RSPCA thought the fox might well have had a very old injury that he learnt to cope with and he described him as chunky. He would have been a forager, he said. So maybe he's not as badly off as we first imagined.

The One That Got Away

Photo Copyright: Maggie May

Last Sunday at breakfast time, Harry exclaimed, "There's a fox in the garden!"

I looked out and saw a fox walking with three legs as one of its hind legs was injured and was being held flat to its tummy in a paralysed state.

I told Harry that it was injured but he hadn't noticed. I looked out again and saw a perfectly healthy fox running about.

This went on for a while. One moment it seemed injured and the next it was perfectly OK.

I was puzzled but then noticed there were two of them. One was injured and the other quite healthy.

The sleek, slightly smaller fox jumped over the wall but the injured fox couldn't make it even though he seemed desperate to follow the other one. The poor thing just didn't seem to have the power to jump the height of the wall with just one back leg.

Not wanting to spook the animal by opening the back door, I decided he might get out if I left him, so Harry and I set off on our very short journey to church.

I was surprised and somewhat dismayed to see the fox lying low amongst some shrubs when we returned from church.

I made the dinner and went out in the afternoon, returning a couple of hours later.

The fox was still there.

Well I didn't want to feed it. I didn't want it in my garden. I have rabbits and they are prey.

I decided to ring the RSPCA. (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals).

With it being Sunday, that meant listening to lots of recorded messages and pressing multitudes of button choices. Eventually I got through to a real person who, after questioning me closely about the situation, told me there would be some one coming to collect it within the hour.

Mr Fox was curled up under a small tree when the officer came with a huge wire basket and a neck grasper and a pair of leather gloves.

I guessed he'd done this before.

I led him through the house into the garden. The minute that fox set eyes on the Officer and the neck grasper, he shot towards the shed and disappeared.

After much searching and shining the powerful torch the Officer had brought, he concluded that panic and adrenalin had given the fox the boost it needed to get over the wall.

I felt a bit of a fool but was assured that it does happen all the time. He left with an empty cage and so far, we haven't seen a fox since.

Well, my Sunday was a bit different.

A Brave Spirit

Photos Copyright: Maggie May

My friend, Squirrel, who is far from well and is often so ill that she cannot leave her bed, had two rabbits and two guinea pigs. I thought the world of the rabbits but I'm a bit allergic to guinea pigs so I don't cuddle them, as my eyes itch and I get snuffly.

The Rex variety of rabbit is much larger than my two dwarf ones and they have fur that feels just like velvet. It is a superb breed.

On my last visit, Squirrel had only recently had Warren vaccinated and had contemplated having him neutered. He really was quite a character. Not the type to be picked up but having the run of the house and the small back yard, he did choose to come and sniff my ankles from time to time but was a very independent rabbit...... only choosing to do what he wanted to do.

He was a brave and fearless rabbit and he chased the local cats away.

His eyes were brownish black and not a bit like the redeye in the photo.

Some how or other, Squirrel recently acquired another rabbit. A dear little doe called Dusty, who was the same breed of rabbit but a different colour. More like chocolate.

Dusty, by comparison turned out to be so loveable and wanted to be hugged and nursed for ever.

I truly fell in love with her.

She just knew that the dashing, handsome Warren was a really desirable fellow and though she was too young to be let loose with him ........ flirted madly through the bars and of course, he was extremely interested in her.

Not long after this visit, Squirrel decided that she couldn't face having Warren neutered as she thought it would change his personality and she loved him just as he was. She didn't want to spoil that brave, inquisitive spirit. She decided that she'd keep them apart until Dusty was old enough to be spayed.

However, the inevitable happened........ and some how or other the cage was left open and Squirrel found them doing what rabbits seem to do quite easily.

I think you could say that he had had his evil way with her.

One evening not long after this incident, both rabbits had been tucked up in their two separate hutches on the yard outside for the night.

There is a communal walkway at the end of the yard but Squirrel had put wire fencing up to stop intruders getting near to their hutches.

However by morning, Squirrel's world had been turned upside down when she found the fencing had been torn down and Warren's cage ripped open.

Dusty and the guinea pigs were still safely in their hutch nearer the house.

It was later, that Squirrel was told by neighbours that around six in the morning, a man with a Jack Russell Terrier had walked past the fenced in rabbits and the dog had gone beserk. Before the man could stop him, he had broken into Warren's hutch and grasped him in his mouth, swinging him like a rag doll.

The man fell into the fencing and broke it while he grappled with his dog and he eventually managed to get Warren, who was still alive, out of his mouth and he put the rabbit back into his broken hutch to recover. The rabbit later pushed the door open and went out for what proved to be his last walk.

According to a neighbour, that brave rabbit was then finished off in a nearby park and carried away to be eaten by a fox. He had finally met his match.

We were all devastated to hear this and it has knocked Squirrel's health back quite a bit and now we are desperately hoping that Dusty will have kits. Then a little bit of Warren will live on.

Blessings and Surprises

I am lucky that I can count my blessings. They are many and one of the blessings that I have is the friendship of people from afar, who I have never met in person, as well as people who I can give a hug to, who I see regularly.

The person who sent me this tag in a special packet from overseas will know who they are and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your generosity.

I know that I am surrounded by love and friendship.

Photos copyright: Maggie May

As well as the blessings of friends who have been persistently praying for me and sending positive vibes and wishing me well, there are the blessings of the unexpected happenings.

I had thought that the pots of tulips that my friend, Squirrel gave me last Christmas, had nearly come to an end. The tulips were all a lovely shade of pink and just recently, bright orange ones appeared. Just as I thought they were the last ones to break through, some almost black ones appeared too.

Today is election day in Britain. I wonder what surprises might be in store for us when the votes are counted. I wonder if it will be a surprise?

The unexpected is always happening. Life is full of surprises.

A not so brilliant surprise was this egg that was left on my path by Mr Fox, who I haven't seen for a good while and I had thought he might have died of mange because of the sorry state he was in. Obviously he or another fox still comes to my garden and deposits eggs at random. This time there was just an empty shell.

The blackbird decided against nesting in my tall shrub, even though she /he had started to build a nest. It really wasn't the safest place to raise a family. However, the male comes regularly into my garden and gathers worms for his family. Now how does he manage to drape half a dozen worms in his mouth so neatly? You would think that when he opened his mouth to pick the last one up, that the rest would fall out. That never happens.

Mothering Sunday

Photo copyright: Maggie May

Since I wrote my last post, the weather has turned much warmer and this coincided with an energy surge in me. Over the last two days, I was able to get out in the garden and prune things back, tidy the debris from the winter winds and do some jobs in the house that I normally would have done before, if I had felt able to.

In England we have Mother's Day completely out of sync with the rest of the world. It is really Mothering Sunday and was to do with the Church originally and it still is, though most people call it Mother's Day.

After we went to church in the morning, my son and granddaughters called round with cards and a present. My daughter had already sent hers in the post.

The day was lovely and sunny and pleasant.

I am so relieved not to be shivering and to be feeling stronger again on this special day.

The tub of narcissi and hyacinths that I received from the teacher last week is responding to the sunshine and the bulbs are opening up.

I have seen two wrens eying up the little pouches underneath the kitchen roof over hang. I hope they decide to nest there. I believe that they build three different nests and the female selects just one. I bet my husband is glad he isn't a wren. Having to provide one home was difficult enough.

The fox who visits our garden has very bad mange. It is pitiful to see the scabs completely covering his back. He looks so ill. One day when I was itching all over and tearing at my skin to the point of injuring myself due to chemo 4, the fox flopped under a shrub in the garden and tried to sleep in the watery sun. However, he was tearing at himself the whole time and had no peace from the irritation. I thought that we had something very much in common, except I don't have mange.

Lets hope that this change in the weather is here to stay.

The Quick Brown Fox Jumped...

Photos copyright: Maggie May

The picture above was taken by me while I was out walking with the grandchildren on a lovely Autumn day. Just one of several lovely paintings on boards near some allotments.

This happened before cancer seemed to take over my life and the post has been in my draft folder for some while. So it is time to give it an airing.

Regular readers will remember that I have had a fox coming to my garden at night bringing in eggs and digging up borders and turning over pots.

Most of the time I have discovered these things during the daytime after the fox has left. Only once did I catch his attention one evening when I looked out of the window while he was drinking from the mini pond and we looked each other in the eye for a good while before he turned to run down the garden and over wall into next door.

However, the other morning I was looking through window at the garden again and I saw the fox lazing in the sun as bold as brass. He looked rather like a pet corgi lying there on the patio.

I ran to get my camera but knew that if I opened the back door he would run away. Hence the foggy photo through my not so clean window!

Eventually the fox got up and jumped the wall next door again, swiftly followed by me and my camera. No not over the wall........ to the point where it jumped over.

The sight of me freaked the animal out and it decided to jump the fence again and disappeared into another neighbour's garden further along the terrace, well out of sight.

A few days later after I had finished my dinner time job, I saw him on our road just sitting there and not running away from me. It was then that I noticed that he didn't look very well. His eyes were half closed and his brush was thin and tatty.

He was seen yet again in my back garden when I was talking to a friend the other day and he came right up to the window and was biting his mange pitifully. He is worse off than me. There is no treatment for him.

The Visitor

Photos copyright : Maggie May.

Something made me go to the window.

He looked up. Our eyes met. Something passed between us. We had definitely made a connection. I must have looked surprised to see him, but he seemed a little wary and uncertain of how I would receive him.

The scrawny fox turned his back on me, lapped some water from the mini pond, turned over some earth in a pot of newly planted young salad leaves with his paw and his nose. Then, slinking down the garden quietly and carefully, picking his way carefully through the obstacles that confronted him, he leapt over the wall into my neighbour's garden before my eyes could focus on him, using a metal chair to reach the height of it.

Its not as though we live in the country. This is a city garden with high walls and trellis on the top for added security. This was an urban fox who probably lives on allotments, but could just as easily live under a shed in someone else's property.

Was this the fox who brought hens' eggs into my garden on three occasions? Hens' eggs that had the little lion stamped on the side? He had put his first one in gravel and I had broken that one in my efforts to get it out. The second one had been left in a pot of chives and the latest one had been half buried in a small pot of earth. Maybe there were bulbs in that pot. I really can't recall, but the egg is still there waiting for him to collect it. Is he saving it for a time of famine? Or maybe he has forgotten about it altogether. Popping eggs into the the ground like a squirrel does with nuts.

Is this the ferocious animal that kills all the chickens for the sake of it, when he really only needs to eat one? Is it the same creature who takes childrens' pet rabbits and guinea pigs when he can?

My fox looked dainty and walked carefully round my garden pots. He would need to have a delicate mouth to carry the eggs while jumping walls and digging in pots. That same animal with a reputation for slyness and killing?

I felt it was a privilege to have him come into my garden and use my belongings and to have witnessed him doing this.

So come back, my scrawny, dainty fox. Share some more moments with me. I want to see you again but please do not leave your shells everywhere and dig up my plants!

The Canoe, the Egg and The Fox

'Messing about on the river....er canal"

Don't quite know what these people were actually doing in the middle of the canal, but they eventually got everything sorted and paddled on their way to where ever they were going, passing me as they did so.

My daughter and two grandsons spent a pleasant time walking along the embankment with me, last summer on a lovely sunny day. Made a good walk.

For those people who read my last post Mystery of the Hidden eggs, I am pleased to announce that the mystery has been solved! My next door neighbour told me that a fox has been running up his path and jumping over into my back garden.

Another neighbour tells me that she had an egg left on her front porch once and she thinks that foxes grab crates of eggs that the milkman leaves on door steps in the morning. She thinks that the foxes eat what they want and then take eggs and bury them for the future and one chose my garden!

So customers might wonder what is happening to their egg order that never seems to arrive and I dare say the milkman will be scratching his head at the mystery and wonders why his customers never seem to get their eggs.

Working Mum had the same thing happen to her last year and her husband thought it was a fox! I was quite relieved to know that someone else had the same thing happen to them. Made me feel less isolated with the problem!

I also had the perfect answer from Hilary who sent me a very useful link about the way foxes steal eggs! Fascinating look it up here.

One less thing to worry about! I can cope with a fox!