Raiders of the Fox Ark

Ms A opened the door, holding a Yorkshire terrier in her hand. What she saw was a pair of adventurers and archaeologists from Ealing who ran to Acton to conduct excavations in her garden. She ushered them to the back of her house and opened the back door. Ms A had recently pruned the tall rose bushes and peeled the trimmings of all leaves. The garden didn't seem desperate for weeding or trimming.

It is the fox that is the problem, said Ms A. It came from the neighbour's garden through a hole in the fence, it dug a burrow at the back, and it made a nest in the shed! Now this one cannot go to the garden, she pointed at the shivering Yorkie.

Ms A left the adventurers with a bucket of tools and an ask to investigate the locations of foxholes. The ultimate goal was to make the garden fox-proof. The side quest was to tip all the buckets, pots and other containers that held rainwater to empty them, and then turn them upside down. Sevan agreed to deal with the element of water while Kash's task was to bring order to the earth disturbed by the fox.

The adventure seekers found a burrow which Ms A filled with a bucket full of soil and covered with fragrant thuja trimmings. Further exploration uncovered a hole in mesh fencing and a small gap under a concrete wall. Kash proposed to dig a trench around the unsecured corner between the netting and the wall and put defence barriers inside it, then secure the construction with pots with soil. The pair found chunky pieces of wood, a mini wooden fence, grating and pots. All of those things could be used to make the cheeky border crossing a little bit more difficult for the fox. Did we mention the adventurers had no spade?

Sevan tried to locate some sort of drainage system when emptying the water-filled pots. He found none of that and had to accept the growing puddle his actions were creating. Sevan also used his height to reach for the taller rose bushes and chop too long stalks.

Kash constructed a makeshift anti-fox defence system by burying a grating and a small fence next to the concrete wall and securing them with buckets with soil, also buried in the ground. She didn't have much faith in the barrier but hoped the fox might get demotivated by trying to dig a deeper hole. Maybe that would be enough for him to target another neighbour's garden instead of Ms A's?

The defence next to the fencing was more elaborate and featured burying a shallow wire mesh basket in the ground. Would that stop those pesky foxes from digging further into Ms A's garden? Who knows.

Before leaving, the adventurers filled the fox burrow, where they had found the treasure bucket, with soil so the fox's secret hideaway would remain forgotten forever.

Sevan and Kash felt that the fire of adventure lightened up in their hearts and decided to respond to the call to more action. They took their jackets off and ran against the wind in search of the fifth element in Westminster.