In July 2023, we started to notice some unusual things in our garden. Our compost bin was always knocked over when we went into the garden in the mornings, and not everything was taken!
We also found poo in the corner, and sometimes even right in the middle of the grass.
A fox was exploring our garden.
Going on late evening walks, we would sometimes see foxes running from one side of the road to the other, so we got excited and went out late every night. They would always avoid us, but we had some lovely encounters, sometimes from across the street, and sometimes a few metres away!
At night, they all made terrible noises, and sometimes I'd look out my window, because I was worried someone was in trouble. But it was always just the foxes, chirping and screaming at each other.
For a while, I thought they were being aggressive, but I soon learned that they are actually very docile, despite what many people believe. Cats scare them away with just their presence, as we've seen in our garden sometimes, and they run away at the sight of any car, human or dog. What's even more interesting is the way they interact with each other. I've spent every night at my window for a few minutes, watching them run around and up and down the street.
Because they make such crazy noises, everyone assumes they're fighting, but when you actually watch them, they're very respectful with each other. Obviously when they're cubs they probably play fight, but I haven't had the chance to see that. What I have seen is when they meet each other in the street. It's happened a few times, where they'll run up to each other, and then one of them will chirp and lower their head. After that, the other one will lower their head too, so they both just crouch near the ground and chirp and sniff at each other. This may be different according to their status, as I have sometimes seen them chase each other, but it surprised me to see them acting more polite then humans!
The fox that comes into our garden (the one that we've seen), is a beautiful girl who has recently had cubs. She also seems to have a slight mange on her side, but it's growing over with fur now, so hopefully it's healing. She comes into our garden every evening, often much earlier than the other foxes go out, and sits on the grass and watches us. She doesn't seem to be as scared of us as the others are, and when we go inside, she grabs the compost bin and drags it all the way across the garden! She leaves a huge mess, poos where she eats, and only takes a little of the food in the bin, but she's very sweet so we let her. Also I don't think we could stop her if we tried. My grandma, who lives with us, bought a new compost bin to stop her from getting in, but she managed to open it anyway! She's very clever, so we just clean up after her now.
It's a common misconception that they're aggressive animals. They would only ever be aggressive if they have cubs nearby, or it's their territory, just like dogs and cats. I have also seen a cat come into our garden and chase the fox, and many other people have stories about their cats scaring them and cornering them too! I think cats are scarier than we give them credit for. As for dogs, I haven't heard many stories, but when we're out walking with dogs we never even see any foxes, so I think it's safe to say that foxes are respectful of most other animals.
Anyway, I personally love foxes. They eat a lot of the leftover foods that people leave on the street, and only come out in the evenings and nights. They keep the populations of smaller animals down, like mice and insects. They also eat fruit and vegetables, and birds of some types.
I think they deserve less slander and more acceptance (even if they do forage in all the bins and make a right mess...), because they're a valuable part of the ecosystem, and are amazing for adapting to city life to survive.
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