~The Red Fox!~

~The Red Fox!~

Story begins with opening remarks to set the state of the grim background.

A dreaded silence that never lets up each night that passes. There’s no understanding of where the sight of their red fur has disappeared too!

~ The Red Fox~

As you walk through the woods the only sound you hear is the crunch of your shoes. Each foot step that you take, presses down on the withered up, dried yet still colorful autumn leaves. Some trees still bare life on them, others shrouded with a look that only displays the explanation of death. No quick blinks of the night glimmer that shines from their target eyes are seen.

Night falls and the air grows cold, you can see your breath when you breathe. In one pocket sits your gloves, you pull them out and put them on, then pull the hood of your jacket over your head. In your other pocket are your night goggles, you whip them out and throw the string over your head. As you walk you mark the trees with bright ribbons so as to not lose your pathway back.

When reaching into your satchel for another handful of ribbons your stomach growls, landing your hand on a granola bar you forgot you had in there. You waste no time opening the wrapping and quickly eat it. You wash it down with some water, and in the process drop some ribbons. Putting the bottle of water away, you bend down to pick up the fallen ribbons; and out of the side of your eye that’s when you see something, it looks like fur. The colour seems right but there’s no movement, you move in closer to take a look.

You touch it carefully, rolling the body over and without any question it’s confirmed, you found one A ‘RED FOX,' Dead! The question you ask yourself now is why? You examine it further for clues, Age, size, approximate weight and any signs of struggling or deformities, such as missing limbs. You pull out your journal and pen and take notes, careful not to miss any of the details. Judging by body temperature, you assess death to be around 72 hrs old. You carefully rush through its mangled fur when you see it! Something that looks like claw marks bigger than a bears. You count the marks and find four. “That’s odd, where’s the thumb?” (The analyst thinks to himself.)

Knowing the wildlife that live in these parts of Algonquin Park, what animal (if any) could be responsible for this young fox’s death? Nothing comes to mind.? The safety procedures necessary to wrap the fox up without contamination are carefully followed. A marker is then left in its location before moving further into the woods in search of other clues that may give more evidence to the case.

A short time later a sound is heard like that of something wrestling in a nearby bush. The analyst’s first reaction is to back away for safety and listen more carefully, to see if the sound can be recognized, it wasn’t leaves wrestling in the wind. Taking a deep breath his feet move forward one step at a time. Besides, he thought, it’s not in his nature to walk away without an answer to something like this. Pointing away from the bush the flashlight is turned on low facing it downward so as not to startle the animal. It took moving forward about 150 ft too finally come into clear view.

It was not another Red Fox, nor was it a beaver or a bear. The frustrated animal was clearly tangled in some sort of makeshift snare that looks to have been old and long forgotten that was left there. When its eyes caught view of the analysts it was uncertain who was more intimidated. The decision was quickly made when it began to whimper, but not a whimper of passivity, rather one to be cautious of. Lucky for the analyst for the moment, the animal was at his mercy, whatever the creature is, it needed identifying.

The animal had the most amazing eyes, so piercing they were almost hypnotizing; like he just couldn’t look away. As for a comparison he thought they looked to be something between like that of a wolf and oddly enough in some strange way a bat. The body is a peculiar shape, the most dominant feature was the muscularity and it was clearly still very healthy, so it hadn’t been tangled there for long. The analyst moved forward to see what other identifying features he could make note of.

The fur was silver, black and streaked with fur that looked gold. In the limited light it took a few minutes for his eyes to focus on the paws with a good view. The front ones looked to only have four claws, as far as the back ones it was too dark to get a confirmation on the match. The pads on its paws were a thick black, clearly signifying the capability of surviving in very different kinds of weather without a problem.

The claws matched the markings of the dead Red Fox, but it could just be a coincidence. The unidentified creature didn’t look to have any obvious dried blood stains anywhere. This one looked like it wasn’t large enough and was too young to cause the damage that was noted on the fox.

The analyst was looking forward to returning to his lab for further investigation. He was sure of one thing; he had without a doubt stumbled on to a new creature. The challenge now was to figure out what it was and give it a name. Whatever the crossbreed, the obvious intent was for the purpose of survival. His number one hope was that this find would help his conclusion to the answer of the sudden devastation of the threatened extinction of the Red Fox from these region of North America? A place known worldwide amongst scientist's and Fox lovers to have many!

Maybe this discovery could be the one shot opportunity for an animal investigator to be in the lime light for 15 minutes of fame? He smiled at the possibility of a new species being named after him. For but a moment this thought boosted his spirit. In this field of work a discovery such as this comes along so rarely. Most of the public are hardly even aware of this kind of career, never mind the bearing or understanding of the work!

On that not he wasted no more time, with the creature safely trapped where it was, the analyst marked the location and walked back to where the fox was, picked it up turned his flashlight on high and quickly followed the markers back to the truck. The truck was a nice sight to see, he carefully laid the fox in the back knowing the cage would take up much of the room, and he didn’t want the creature to be able to reach the fox. He struggled with the cage for a few minutes fighting with its awkward size.

It was a balancing act to carry while using the flashlight to guide the way back; in what was a very dark and eerily quiet night. He was surprised at the adrenalin he had that got him back to the location as quickly as it did, and was satisfied with relief that the animal was indeed still tangled in the location where it was found. In fact it looked as though through more struggling that it had put itself in an even more uncomfortable situation.

The cage was quickly unfolded and securely landed in place, the muzzle, rope and leash (if needed) were pulled out. He put his animal gloves on for further aid and protection; took a deep breath and walked over to the unidentified critter, he then carefully walked around it being sure to get a good angle not to mess this catch up. The Muzzle was quickly put over its face and secured in place. With that out of the way he decided it would be easier to tie down the legs and carry it to the cage.

Using his knife he quickly cut the animal clear of the tangled mess around it, and wasted no time placing it in the cage. Once secured, he loosened the muzzle enough and attempted to pacify it with a cow bone, before loosening the ropes around its legs to give the animal a little more mobility. In the process of all the moving around the analyst spotted the underbelly and discovered that the critter was female.

40 minutes passed when finally with a lot of panting and sweating he made it back to the truck. With the cage put in place he was happy that the hardest part of this outing was now over. He walked to the driver side door opened it and jumped in. He through his gloves on the seat beside him and put the key that was inside his glove in the ignition and eagerly started the truck. Glad to finally be heading home, it was a long day but definitely well worth it.

He put the gear into drive, turned on the lights put his foot on the gas and started driving slowly. “Tomorrow is a new day,” He said, out loud. One to look forward too, because the answers from here could only lead to positive results; and then he sighed a sigh of happy relief.

Turning on the radio for company, ‘Bob Dylan’ came blaring out of the speakers. Now how lucky is that the analyst thought with a huge smile on his face? That done he picked up speed driving back home in the tranquility of the dark. Satisfied in knowing one thing was certain, and that was, that this one animal researcher would be sleeping well tonight!

To be continued....

Written by,

Jennifer Cooley!