Trying to be as sly as a fox

I’m a keen photographer of wildlife and was told of some fox Cubs in Fareham so I decided to try and get some pictures. Due to their shy nature people hadn’t managed to get close to them but with my zoom lense I was able to get a good close up of the Cubs and parents and sadly they didn’t look well, with very bad mange. With the help of a wildlife group on Facebook I was put in touch with a charity that were able to send out medication to be given to each member of the family. And so began the fox rescue which has taken over my life! It turns out it’s not easy finding the foxes in the first place, then trying to get them individual doses of medication! However I have risen to the challenge. The two Cubs have been most visible to me and I have named them Squinty and Flighty. squinty was most poorly, barely being able to see, at one point he walked within 2 feet of me and didn’t notice. However being so poorly he was easiest to get the medicated piece of jam sandwich into, although it still took several days to learn his habits and best areas to find him. He has floppy ears and squinty eyes. Flighty is a different little thing. He’s got some skin irritation but is very lively and legs it at the slightest sound. He has pointy ears but less hair in his face. I worked out his main hang out a big clump of trees. I was leaving out smelly food with the medicated bit of sandwich and then staking out the area in my car. First of all blooming Squinty stuck his head out and I had to leap out to prevent him being double dosed! Turns out he was feeling better after only 2 days of medication. I’ve also had to move location when magpies have noticed the food and try to take it, due to the medical element it’s a constant vigil to stop the wrong fox or creature from getting at it. My funniest moment was when I suddenly saw Flighty running towards me, I threw the sandwich to the side and threw myself between a couple of work bench’s! Sadly he got to me, saw me huddled on the ground we came face to face and he ran away, another failure but a funny one. Another stake out where I was sat 15 foot from sandwich and chicken, I briefly checked my phone. I looked up and there was Squinty in front of the food staring at me, eyesight being much improved, not so squinty now! As I leapt up to stop him, rather than running, immediately he grabbed the biggest bit of chicken in his chops and then ran. Cheeky little wotsit. Anyway after many days and adventures both Cubs have now had their first treatment and today I managed to get dad before the rain. Mum is much more elusive but with grit and determination I’ll get them all back to health, hopefully. Even caught a picture of a cub sharing the food bowl with a hedgehog before I brought new food bowls which are raised up to prevent encouraging rats, very spoilt foxes!