I walked out the front door and we both froze, looking at each other.
After a moment, she walked calmly off at an angle, then paused. Traditionally, that means she was trying to lead me away from a pup. Interesting!
Usually, when I encounter an animal near the house, I try to be cool and low-key toward them – generally, they’re my neighbors. The only encounters that make me a bit nervous are the bears, because bears are territorial, grumpy, and dangerous.
I was heading to the shop, so I hopped in the truck and started down the driveway, but then I saw a little movement. Fox pup! Poor little thing must have been very new to the world because it didn’t know to run oblique to the driveway, and started running ahead of me. I was just idling along, waiting for the poor thing to make a sensible move, but it took a while.
As I idled past, it turned and popped its head up to watch me, looking absolutely adorable, but I had already stowed my phone and I lost the chance for a good portrait.
I’m never sure what to do; the photographer in me wants to chase after the critter waving my phone at it, but it doesn’t seem respectful and I guess I always hope that if I’m not threatening I may get another, better, chance to say hello. That actually happened a few years ago with the bobcat. I saw it a few times down by the pond and was always distant and non-aggressive. Then one day I came out and it was sitting tucka-paw like a housecat, on the hood of my jeep. I turned slowly (not looking at the cat) and went back into the house and got my good camera, then stepped back onto the porch and started taking pictures of the cat, who fairly quickly decided I was being uncool and slid off down the side of the car and slunk into the tall grass, keeping the car between itself and me and my camera.
When I looked down at the camera to see if I had gotten any good shots, it was blinking “NO CARD” at me.
Reminds me of the time a neighbour living across the street sent me a picture of a black bear wandering through my front yard, in bright daylight, while nobody was home. I live in eastern TN but within city limits, nowhere near the wilderness.
Awwww fluffy chunky little pup, she must be a good mother. Probably no bad thing for the pup to have some fear of vehicles.
But what is this “stowed my phone” excuse? You know perfectly well that the best shots(don’t) happen, because your phone, but especially your camera are inaccessible/out of charge/lacking the card etc..
I was doing some work in the local university library. Just about every day I would meet the resident fox as I showed up about 08:30. Some times it was just sitting around but on other days it was dodging around a car get get that black squirrel for breakfast.
We were in a dense urban urban area with auto traffic and hordes of pedestrians, neither of which bothered the fox. Come to think of it, the pedestrians seemed to think this was perfectly normal.
jrkrideau@#3:
We were in a dense urban urban area with auto traffic and hordes of pedestrians, neither of which bothered the fox. Come to think of it, the pedestrians seemed to think this was perfectly normal.
I guess that’s what “normal” means. It’s an observation of the current state of reality, or an imagined one. I’m not sure how a fox hunting breakfast is any more or less normal than a human having its morning muffin and coffee.
OT
NASA Ingenuity Helicopter Spots Spacecraft Wreckage on Mars – Perseverance’s Cone-Shaped Backshell
With excuses like that I see a long career as a bigfoot photographer in your future.
OK, I admit I laffed a bit about the “NO CARD” finale. I was hoping to be able to find some pretty Badger-made bobcat pictures and that put a fork in that expectation.
I do occasionally see foxes or roe deer outside of my garden, but not very often and even less often during the day. No bears to fear around here, but boars could be dangerous. Never seen one of those, curiously enough, although they are a bit overpopulated in Central Europe.
My folks and I live (separate but very nearby houses) in a suburb in the Adelaide hills, a suburban area. We get foxes which I have seen early morning or late night occassionally on the streets even near fairly main roads.My Mum has lost some of her chooks to them a couple of times. They are amazing animals and really pretty unfussed by our presence.
Bobcats tho’ – nope.
Wildlife ~wise in the local Belair National Park we get plenty of kangaroos, emus, the occassional echidna (including one that was killed on the main road right near the pub once) feral deer & goats, plus of course domestic and feral cats, FWIW.
PS. At least it wasn’t the lens cap left on!