Community Chat

[golding76]

Oh dear.  I just looked out back and saw two pups/kits/whatever cavorting like two kittens.  They appeared to be very comfortable playing out there, circling my shed and so forth.  They were truly frolicking all over.

One went under the shed. 

Well, when I saw that adult fox a week or so ago, he must have already been inhabiting the space and I did not know it.

(No shoes will be left outside -- I'm referencing the post I submitted the other day in which I reported that a neighboring community has had a problem with a fox family stealing shoes left outdoors.)

[Just Bling]

Hope you don't have any dogs in the area.....Mom must be in the area if you have babies.

Foxes are predators, not good to have around people and small animals.

[golding76]

My next-door neighbors have two dogs that I think of as "the hounds from hello" because they keep the dogs pent-up, except when they (the neighbors) go out.  Then they give them free movement in the house, and they come to the bay window in attack mode and growl horribly when a pedestrian passes by.  

Other wild and crazy dogs -- as well as a couple of well-behaved dogs -- live across the street.  They are too far away to do any good or to get into trouble.  But we do have foxes appear all over the place and at different times of the day.  I've warned those with young children to be on alert, and those parents seem to know about the situation and take it in stride.  

Me?  I hope the fox family moves into the adjacent woods soon.  Have they not seen the Zillow ads on TV, suggesting a new home?

[on the bay]

That must have been such a memorable thing to watch!

[golding76]

It was a cute sight.

The sight did not rival the wildest sight ever back there: a mother raccoon and her five babies swinging through my persimmon tree.  It actually was frightening and unnerving as the tree is only 10 ft. from the house.

When I first spotted the mama with one baby, it was adorable.  Then the entire family arrived (except papa), and I freaked out. 

[fthunt]

Foxes LOVE sheds - out of the weather and safe.  Why homeowners don't put a

skirt around the base is beyond me.  I don't have a shed but neighbor ones have had families of ground hogs - and foxes I assume.

Go to hardware store and buy wood to cover the big space opening....

Discourage their hanging around kids and pets.

[Mz iMac]

Last year I posted pics of baby foxes I stumbled upon deep in the woods.  Both were playing outside of their den.  I took a pic & got the hell out of there.

What I though was a beautiful fluffy cat I would see late into the night was the mother or father.

[golding76]

My late husband did put chicken wire around the bottom, but it has since fallen into disrepair and gives access to the pit area.  We later put up bricks around the open area, but the groundhogs and foxes have managed to snag a space under the shed every year.

[fthunt]

@golding76 I know you have to keep 2 jumps ahead of an animal looking for a home out of the rain/snow conditions.  Don't blame them - some animals will simply dig under the blockage.

It's just scary if you love your little 'fluffy' (cat or dog) or .............your kid.

[JustJazzmom]

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@golding76 wrote:

My late husband did put chicken wire around the bottom, but it has since fallen into disrepair and gives access to the pit area.  We later put up bricks around the open area, but the groundhogs and foxes have managed to snag a space under the shed every year.

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@golding76 

You can hire a mason to come & put cement below the shed to prevent burrowing animals from getting in. Then you can get plastic lattice & get some aluminum screening on a roll & either hot glue it into place behind the lattice & then screw it into place at the shed openings. 

We did that with our deck to prevent flying insects from making nests under the deck using screened plastic lattice. Many years later, I hired a mason to put cement below the deck to prevent certain insects from reproducing in the soil (camel cave crickets). That stopped those insects from hopping around at night during the summer. 

The kits sound adorable.