Fox Tales

One afternoon as we were heading to the beach last week, Luke shouted, "FOX!" Then he and Ethan darted down the driveway hooting and hollering as I finished loading the chairs onto our beach cart. They came running back to me excitedly jabbering about how they had just seen a fox walk down the street. I listened to their tale, but was focused on my task. Surely they didn't see a fox, I thought. It must have been a stray dog. As the boys, Poppy and I walked to the beach a few moments later, they continued to spin all sorts of tales about the fox. Talking NON-STOP! Poppy was careful to ask them for a description of the fox. What did the nose look like? Was it long and pointy? What did the tail look like? etc., etc. They were eager to report their sighting to everyone else when they joined us on the beach and then got busy enjoying the ocean.

The next morning, on our way to the beach we couldn't find Luke's flip flop anywhere. We all knew exactly where he had left it, but it was no where to be found. I'm not sure what caused me to spot it, but I found it about 4 feet away at the base of a tree in some bushes. We just assumed one of their cousins threw it in the bushes in a moment of silliness and thought nothing of it. (We now realize it was probably the fox who moved it.)

On Friday, we spent the afternoon in the swimming pool. We heard some rumbling of thunder and quickly climbed out of the pool. The moms got the little boys wrapped in towels and headed in for bath time. Poppy continued to relax beside the pool reading a magazine. Grammy and Darin were on the opposite side of the pool gathering pool gear.

All of a sudden, Janna noticed the fox right near the pool area. The fox sauntered by the outside showers, slipped through the fence slats, and took a sip of water from the pool. Poppy leaped out of his chair! The fox then slipped back out the fence slats, peed on my flip flops, grabbed one of Ethan's flip flops and took off across the street.

A few moments later, we heard a loud scream coming from across the street. We found out later the fox was startled and bit an older women who had been outside with her friends. She had to get emergency medical care. Oh my!

Who would have ever suspected we would have an encounter with a fox at the beach? crazy! We later noticed that most of our soft pool toys were missing. We suspect that the fox has a nice cozy den with swim toys and Ethan's flip flop. I'm very thankful that the boys were all safely inside when the fox made his appearance.