A couple of weeks ago I posted about a fox cub my mother rescued after we found out the vixen had been killed. I promised you an update on her progress and I spoke to the lady who took her in last week so here’s the latest.
At first she weighed between 300-400g and was a little dehydrated but put on 100g in 3 days after becoming fully hydrated and taking immediately to a diet of fresh meat.
Hard to believe this little sweetie will turn into our apex predator!
She had a couple of tics and was infested with worms and fleas, which she generously passed on to her carers (just the fleas!), but was otherwise in good health. After a course of parasite treatment she came on in leaps and bounds and began to show signs of hunting behaviour by fighting with an old sock.
After a week and a half with her original benefactors she was passed on to a rescue centre near Kings Lynn in Norfolk where she was introduced to another orphaned cub. They had a good old scrap during which the pecking order was established and after that they knew their respective places and got along well. So everything is now being put in place for a release date in August, which is when a wild fox cub would be venturing out on its own.
So everything is looking good for a return to the wild for this little lady and I’ll hopefully get another progress report in about a months time. I’ll try to find out if it will be possible to photograph her eventual release and I’ll share updates and photographs as and when.
The Naturephile 
I’m so glad to read this update and to know how well she’s doing. I’m still pulling for a children’s story! 🙂
Are you serious about the story? I’ll try to get pictures of the release and maybe all the pictures could then be incorporated into a tale. How exciting is that!
I’m completely serious. I think you have a real winner here. This is something children (well, and adults, too, obviously) would love! The photographs you have already are spectacular. The story is absolutely compelling. You should go for it! You could aim for a picture book first, and if publishers don’t pick it up (I don’t know why they wouldn’t), then go for a young children’s magazine, like National Geographic for Kids (or others of that genre).
I’m going to have to give this some thought… 🙂
Thanks for the update, Finn. Things do look positive. Hopefully she will fare well when released.
Fingers crossed Rick. I’m going to try and get another update soon and I’m going to try to photograph her eventual release. Not sure I’ll be able to but I’ll do my best. As you say though, looking positive so far 🙂
That little one is so cute!
Hi Finn I’m really glad you wrote this blog because in the same situation I’m not sure I would have thought it was ok to rescue her as usually we’re told to leave wildlife alone. Now I know for future that if the parent has been killed then it’s better to get the offspring to a rescue centre.
You’re right, at that age if the mother is dead the cubs will die too, so it’s best to rescue them.
Thank you for the update, Finn…I wonder how she’ll fare when out on her own, being so young.
Hello Scott, she’ll be released at the same age a wild cub would fly the coup, so if she’s bright enough to have learnt the skills she’ll need she should be OK, as long as she can find a safe area and feed up well before the cold of winter descends. Fingers crossed.
hello again, Finn…i was thinking about that…she’ll be about six months old at that time…and i’ll have my fingers crossed with you. 🙂
Thanks Scott – she’ll need all the luck she can get!
Thanks for the follow-up report, Finn, and a big pat on the back for a job well done! I’d shout you a pint if i could!
Thanks Gary, that’s the kind of promise, notional or otherwise, that makes me strive to deliver 😉
Great story, Finn! It would be wonderful if you could be there for the release. Keep us posted on her progress if you can.
Will do Ruth.
Thanks for the follow up. Rarely do we get to follow such progress. I hope you get to photo her release. That would be a great way to let her go. 🙂
Hello Sofia, I’ll see what I can do. Here’s a website from a rescue centre closer to home for you (Michigan, which I guess is alot closer than the UK!) which I follow. They have some good stories of rescue and release back into the wild: http://bncwildliferehab.wordpress.com/
Thank you Finn. I’ll check it out. My son is developing a real love for nature and animals so we’ll both enjoy a rescue and release story. Michigan is a lot closer to us than the UK but since my son’s father is from England, he enjoys English stories too. That’s where my former in-laws live so my son has some connection to it through paternal heritage so I do what I can to give him some English info as well. Thanks for the link.
Hello Sofia, you’re welcome. I think it’s wonderful that your son is becoming a junior Naturephile! The more children that grow to appreciate the world around us the more likely we are to survive as a species, and of course the converse of that is also the case.
That’s great news Finn, and it would be lovely if you could photograph her release to round off the story. That’s made me feel all happy this morning – thank you again for bringing sunshine into my life!
Hello Lorna, it’s a pleasure. I don’t know yet if I’ll be able to cover the release, but I’m hoping.
I understand, it would be nice if you could but perhaps a bit tricky.
It all depends on what the folk at the current rescue place think – they may or may not be keen to have visitors. I’ll ask the question and see what they say.
Thank you for following up on this gorgeous little thing! I am very much encouraged when I see folks who have compassion for the other creatures who also share our planet! Things like this really help offset all of the bad news that the media delights in showing us every day.
You make a very good point there, and I guess the crazy thing is that there is lots of good stuff going on as well as the bad stuff all around the globe.
Have the media decided for us that we only want to be informed of the bad stuff? I don’t know but it seems that way sometimes. I reckon the blogosphere is providing a valuable public service in connecting folk who want to find out about all the good things that are going on too. And there are lots of us about 🙂
And here we have to cull foxes because they are not native to Australia – this is a cutie!
There must be lots of them around if they need to be culled. Do they damage the native wildlife or are they only a pest because they threaten domestic animals and livestock?
They wreak havoc on wildlife – it’s a huge problem here. They were first introduced during colonisation for hunting/recreational purposes – it’s quite a sad and stupid problem we now have here downunder!
I had a horrible feeling you going to say it was the result of some colonialist buffoonery. It really is a dumb problem, and I guess it’s a nearly impossible one to deal with.
This is lovely, good job she didn’t leave any of her lodgers with us, but then we didn’t handle her directly, I picked her up with a newspaper to put her in the box. So glad it is all going to end well for her.