So I'd heard there were foxes here. Apropos, then, that my first contact with them was to hear them. A short, sharp nippy bark, so familiar sounding, that I thought in moments I'd see a human and their dog. But no. Instead, a fox appears on the trail just 15 or so feet in front of me. It pauses without looking my direction, then turns away from me and trots off. My first fox sighting!! And then, seconds later, while I'm still frozen in astonishment - the second one appears on the trail. Stops for longer, listening perhaps, but also doesn't look my direction. Then turns and follows the first.
So my first encounter was to hear them, and I see not one, but two!! Beautiful red, about the size of small to medium dogs.
As I returned from my walk 45 minutes later, a herd of about 15 deer - the largest I've seen yet -meet me in the same place (or rather- I disrupt them - in the same place). Beauty. But it's very apparent I'm the interloper here.
Your tales accounts and stories are marvelous, Mt. Lucas Mama, whoever you really are. The details, facts, speculations, lessons learned, questions raised, humor, photos, everything about your writings here I'm truly enjoying and find uplifting fun and often fascinating (I've wondered how BL's acreage is measured too; also a mile-long photon? Wouldn't Einstein get a kick out of that!). I hope it's okay that I'm allowing them to spark my jotting down some of my impressions and own experiences.
ReplyDeleteWow, trying not to be envious (but failing) about the two foxes. Serendipity City! I can feel your happy exhilaration through the 1's and 0's! And 15 deer! 15! Okay now the envy is palpable. Luckily one deer is still a super gratifying sheer pleasure to cohabit a moment and general space with. Last evening's was a big doe standing and watching to see how I was going to live and let live with her. She must have encountered me before, I thought, and I thought she might have been the really big doe camping one night a month or so ago in my neighbor's front woodsy yard area.
My first fox sighting was 4-5 years ago, after years of only seeing them slink low speeding across the curvy descending road at night. I was with one of my cats by the driveway next door with the green car. The cat was on the car and looked behind me over my shoulder. I turned around and there it was. It paused very briefly, looked at us very nonchalantly, and then looked back ahead and very slowly sauntered off. It was almost insulting how little regard it had for my physical speed and prowess. Perhaps it had previously seen me lumbering around lackadaisacally.