Let’s remind ourselves of a typical urban fox. Let’s call him “Widdle”.
In December 2009, he arrives at the corner of our blizzard swept lawn:
The weather is unusually cold for Nottingham, and he is rather cold. And, as always, he is rather hungry. Lucky then, that he knows exactly where to go.
He makes his way up to what used to be the base of an old garage which was burnt down years ago in an insurance job fire, and prison time was served, I believe, (not by me, I hasten to add, nor indeed, by Widdle). He doesn’t have to shout out his order, but if he could shout it out, it would be “Sausages all round!” .
And then he settles down in the snow to sit quietly and wait for his meal. Just look at that fantastic fur coat. For winter, it is at its thickest. A luxuriant, magnificent warm fur coat:
Just occasionally, he changes his position so that nothing freezes solid:
He waits patiently until he catches that distinctive smell…….
“What’s that smell?
That meaty smell ?
That’s the smell of…..sausages!!!”
The best cheap sausages we could find. They came from the Iceland supermarket chain and contained 42% meat with no ash included, as many foods for dogs seemed to have. Widdle took what he could carry in his mouth, and set off back to his den to take it to his family:
And he ate one, and then he took another three back to his den, for Mrs Widdle and the rest of the family. Naturally, in such weather, Widdle left a lot of tracks. Mixed in may be a few domestic cat (felis catus) but I would be amazed if there were any dog prints:
Here’s an individual print. The claws are visible which excludes domestic cat:
Here’s another one:
The following day, the weather cleared up markedly and most of the snow quickly melted. Even so, I was more than a little surprised to see a butterfly sunning itself in the rays of the winter sun:
And even closer up, it is really beautiful. It’s a Small Tortoiseshell:
It looks as if it is injured but I don’t think it is. It seems merely to have twisted itself a little to make sure that it gets the maximum amount of sun.
John Knifton 
Wonderful!
Yes, we adored our few years with Widdle. Most of his life, and a tiny slice of our own.
So good to see Widdle again. You got him through that winter
Yes, we did, and by our calculations, overall, he had four or five lives because of our food donations. LIkewise, most of his fifteen cubs survived because of us.
Apparently a very large proportion of foxes die in their first winter, and four is a great age for a fox.
Well done
Mother Nature needs a helping hand, now more than ever!
I’m with Derrick on this one. It’s great to see Widdle!!
We aim to please! And I’m so glad that you like Widdle. Our family fell completely in love with him, in a very short time indeed!
There’s nothing like a plate full of sausages on a snowy day. I bet Widdle loved them.
I’m sure he did, but foxes do have their own etiquette. If he arrived and was very hungry, he would eat his own sausage but after that, he did tend to take two sausages, sometimes three, back to the den and Mrs Widdle and the cubs. He might then come back for a second visit if he thought more food was needed for the family.
Two of natures most beautiful creatures and how nice to see them both in the winter time. Unusual for the butterfly I must admit but a nice addition to the garden anyway. Widdles’s coat is magnificent, such a vibrant colour and so thick. Just gorgeous.
It certainly is, and he would pay the price with the tatty coat he had to put up with after his annual moult.
It’s a shame he has to go through that but it is definitely worth it in the long run.
Absolutely. He looked like the wealthy gentleman around town with that bright new red coat on !