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Molly's Critters
BLUE home |
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 BLUE Blue was a silver fox, a fur farm fox, that came to me in August of 2003, right after I lost my whole raccoon population to panleukopenia. I wrote the following article to be published in our Fall 2003 newsletter. I didn't publish it. Shortly after I wrote this Blue escaped from his cage. He went to try to play with a neighbors dog and was shot to death. I haven't been able to talk about this for over a year. But he remains in my memory and this is my tribute to him.
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Not wildlife! Not a coat!
Inasmuchas our work is about nursing and caring, it is also about keeping an emotional and physical distance from our charges as much as possible. We love the animals in our care but know that they were born to be wild and free and need to maintain their wild instincts. Once in a while, however, we are called upon for more unusual tasks. About a month ago I received a call from a rehabilitator in West Chazy. She had taken on a Silver Ranch fox who had been confiscated from a family who had been raising it as a pet. She was looking to find a home for it as she did not have the facilities to house it. Ranch foxes are a unique animal. Neither truly wild or truly domestic, they have no place in this world except on a coat hanger. They have been bred from red foxes for their fur. As I had an open cage and an open hole in my heart after losing my young raccoons to feline parvo, I offered to take the fox temporarily until a permanent home could be found. Subsequently, Elise Able, who runs Fox Wood Wildlife Rescue foxwoodrehab.com in the Buffalo area agreed to give him a permanent home, but we had to house him until we could find him a ride out there. Keeping "Blue" for the past month has been a unique experience which I think has given me insight into the habits and instincts of foxes, one of my favorite animals to rehab. His lively temperament, somewhere between a cat and a dog, helped ease the pain of my raccoon loss. Since he was destined to become an education animal it was my task to keep him socialized. It was truly a unique experience to have an animal that needed love and attention in my rehab facility.
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