Daily surprises

Late last Friday afternoon, as I was leaving the farm, rushing down the farm lane, splashing through the creek (which is why my car is almost never clean), I passed the tenant house that sits close by the road. What I saw there made me catch my breath. I stopped the car in the middle of the road and scrambled to find my camera (now that I have a blog, it's nearly always with me). There in the yard of the vacant little house were two young foxes. We see foxes on the roads around here fairly often and nearly always at night, so I could hardly believe what I was seeing in broad daylight. I pulled off the road and cautiously got out of the car. One of the foxes ran down over the hill toward the creek, but the other stayed and watched me as I was watching it. The whole scene seemed somehow magical. She moved back and forth across the yard several times, stopping to stare at me. (I don't know for sure that it was a female, but that's how I have been thinking about it.) I will admit that after a while, I began to get a little freaked out. The population of rabid animals in this part of the country has risen in the last few years, so I didn't want to take any foolish chances. This fox looked healthy, alert and more curious than anything else. After maybe 10 minutes or so of our mutual fascination with each other, she decided to join her sibling and casually trotted off down the hill and out of sight. (you can click to biggify and this time it will work!)

I can't stop thinking about how the fox looked at me, somehow expectantly. Honestly, if I hadn't had my camera and been able to record the whole thing, I might have decided I'd imagined some of it. Now, of course, every time I leave the farm, I find myself looking for the foxes. I've said it many times and it is so true.....everyday is different around here and you never know what surprises are in store.