Saturday 8 February 2014

My Friendly Urban Fox

It had been a while since I'd seen a fox.

There always used to be at least one highly visible one in Newark down the years. The specimen that used to patrol Balderton Gate, running away from your post pub footsteps into the gardens of the sheltered accomodation. The family that used to live on Lime Grove, a vixen and her three cubs I once saw peering at me round a gatepost, heads above each other like a Disney tableau.

Another fox family I saw fleetingly on Middlegate once, feasting off the detritus of a Friday night, and even at work in Nottingham there was a friendly vixen who used to sit outside the canteen and take bits of breakfast cob from your hand.

But I'd not seen one for a while, and had contended myself with hedgehogs, frogs, toads, and the 24.7 tuneful warbling of robins as I transported myself by night.

Until recently.

There is a new fox in town.

I'd say, judging by the brush, it's a male, and it is a very handsome chap. It appears out of the church gardens, and comes to feed off whatever has overflowed from the bins by the...Fox and Crown Pub, where else! I'd love to photograph it, but Fantastic Mr Fox is far too canny for that, although he seems to be quite calm around people.

I love the fact he's busy scoffing away, three feet outside the door of an oblivious pub full of drinkers, and only I can see him!


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