We first suspected that we had canine residents at Casa Dos Rios during the remodeling of our house. A small pile would appear on random doorsteps each time a change was made to said doorstep, such as the removal of a doormat, removal of concrete, repouring of concrete, addition of new tile, etc. It boggled the mind how many times the mystery animal could make deposits in a single night. One night, three presents were left for us! As the season progressed, our fox droppings began to show the telltale stains of the ripening Blue Elderberries (Sambucus mexicana) that grow in the creekbeds.
Our first sighting of our nightime visitor wasn’t until we moved into Casa Dos Rios in April, 2006. Shortly thereafter, we saw a lone fox running from our headlights when we came home after dark. But it wasn’t until the garden construction was completed in the spring of 2007 that we saw the female Gray Fox pictured (Urocyon cinereoargenteus). She was near the front gate and I realized, as she stood her ground while I got out to get my camera from the back of my car, that she had small pups in the drainage pipe that goes directly under the front driveway. I could hear the quiet squeaks as they communicated with one another. I waited patiently until one pup peeked out in curiousity before I snapped my picture, then left them in peace.
As the pups got older, we found that there were three pups and one adult female. We would see them earlier and earlier in the evenings as they attempted to satisfy their expanding hunger. And sometimes, we would see them early in the morning as well. After the planting was completed in June 2007 and the fence surrounding the house was completed, the foxes quickly dug under the fences in several places in order to continue to have access to the house garden. Apparently, the pups loved the blooming Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) as on several occasions I would find large stands of the tender flowers mashed onto their sides where the pups had come to roll and play. Luckily, it didn’t seem to kill the plants, but after the roughhousing, they weren’t the best looking flowers in my garden! However, I gave strict instructions to the gardener to leave the dugouts so the foxes could come in and play. We became quite fond of our fox pups and began to strain our necks each time we drove up or down the driveway after or near the nighttime hours.
On the occasion of my very first garden tour on August 9, 2007 to four very nice ladies with the California Native Plant Society, I was bragging about our fox family when lo and behold, there they were, rolling and tumbling amongst one another while mom looked on nervously. The ladies were thrilled and took several photos. As the summer wore on, mom began to wear out. We began to see her curled up in the sun resting without her pups. It was as though she was saying, ‘you’d be tired too if you tried to keep three pups fed all by yourself!’ Our sightings began to dwindle as the pups matured until we no longer saw the foxes for many months, and then only mom on the rare occasion-- until this spring.
This year, we didn’t see the pups until they were already about half size and this year there were only two pups. One was quite a bit smaller than the other. Sadly, the last time I saw them in about mid-July, I only saw two foxes which could mean that the smaller one didn’t thrive. We love our foxes and are proud that they can successfully survive and reproduce without treating them as though they are pets. They are wild and free as they should be and I sometimes picture them leaving the nest to migrate into Mt. Madonna County Park where they will continue to thrive and reproduce. (Casa Dos Rios Journal, Jan '09)
