Monday, October 01, 2007

The Quick Brown Fox Jumped over the Curb

Kiki is swimming three mornings a week before school. She has to get up somewhere around 4:45 a.m. to catch a cab at 5:30 a.m. to be in the water at 6:00 a.m. I usually show my support by groggily raising my head to say "have a good day,sweetie" then collapsing back on my pillow to get another hour or so of sleep. I am a good mom that way.

Today I got up. To show support, but mainly to give her money for the cab. I went downstairs and waited with her. I was looking out the window, down the still-dark street for Kiki's cab when I saw what I thought was a large cat run by under the glow of the street lamp. As it got closer to my building, I saw that it was actually a fox! Right here in the middle of the city. A fox. We watched it walk down the street, cross over and head down another busy street, sauntering, like it didn't have a care in the world this fox.

I mentioned it to someone today and they told me that London has somewhere near ten thousand foxes and it is quite the problem. The problem apparently started shortly after WWII when foxes came into the city looking for food and they have pretty much set up camp here ever since. They speak of foxes here like we did of raccoons, possums, wild turkeys and even wild boars back home in California . Going through the garbage cans, turning over plants, dig up lawns and, not surprisingly, they smell. It is a political hot potato. Homeowners want the government to do something about them, like shoot them. The government so far has taken a hands off policy on the foxes.

Perhaps the problem could be solved by lifting the fox hunting ban in England. Couldn't you just see Chizz and Snake in riding breeches, jaunty caps, on horses hunting throughout the neighborhood? Well, maybe not. Tally-Ho!!

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