Lira the fox cub
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At breakfast time on Monday of last week I found an abandoned fox cub very close to the pond in my back garden. I had a good look round the garden (the lower half of which I let grow wild to act as a mini-nature reserve) but there was no sign of its mother or of any siblings. Not wishing it to leave it there and seeing that it was quite cold and in a distressed condition, I took it firstly to the local vets and then,on their advice, onto a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation center about ten miles away. Once there, the lady in charge put the cub into an incubator and that was that. My good deed for the day done. So you can imagine my surprise when on the following Saturday an article appeared in a local regional paper, all about the fox cub I had taken in. Not only that there is an on-line article including a video of the cub being cared for.
Here's a link to the on-line article and a couple of photos I took,one with the cub on the lawn where I found her and another in the bottom of a canvas shopping bag I used to transport her. http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/video_lira_the_fox_cub_rescued_from_near_death_by_wildlives_colchester_1_3435193 
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AWWWWW...how sweet! It is sooo small. Poor thing. Thank goodness that you found her & took care of her. Very nice of you. Has the mother ever been around your garden again? Gold star for you!
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The first picture looks like an otter! Never seen a picture of a fox cub so young. There must be a very unusual reason for it/its mother to have brought it out into the open....
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oobu24:
Has the mother ever been around your garden again
Apart from the cub,I haven't seen any foxes in the garden this year at all.But last year there was a den under the compost heap and I saw much older cubs with their mother running around the garden at dusk.
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Snorckle:
Never seen a picture of a fox cub so young. There must be a very unusual reason for it/its mother to have brought it out into the open....
Sometimes when the mother is disturbed she'll carry the cubs to a new location. Occasionally they get dropped and picked up later. In this case though there was a trail in the grass where the cub appeared to have crawled,literally blindly, for about three meters,and only just stopped short of falling in the pond. Given the weak state of the cub and how cool it was to the touch, I think it had been out in the open for several hours so I think, for whatever reason,it had been abandoned. I was a bit apprehensive in moving it but was reassured when the lady at the rescue center said that I'd done the right thing as it would have died otherwise.
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You could have been it's surrogate mom! LOL.
I guess they get their color when they are a bit older. 
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oobu24:
You could have been it's surrogate mom! LOL.
Yes, but only if I had a sex change op !!
Quite a few of my friends have commented on how dark the fur was but I guess it will lighten over the coming weeks/months. -
naw....a guy could be a mom.
About the fur...dalmations are suppose to be born without spots. They get them later. That must be the case with the fox babies. They'll color up soon. -
Oh so adorable and small... Glad you were there to find and rescue her, good for you!.
BTW, your backyard sounds lovely with the pond and all. -
How sweet...thanks for sharing your story! I really enjoyed reading about Lira.
