One of my daughter's favorite animals is vulpes vulpes, the Red Fox. She loves stories and tales about foxes, from Aesop to Dahl to the ones told by her own father (but her favorite might be Dickon's pet fox "Captain" in The Secret Garden). I have written before about how foxes are returning to our fair city, and I've even seen one running around our neighborhood. The other day we were walking in the woods on beautiful Belle Isle and a little red fox crossed our path. While these creatures are generally shy, elusive creatures, we were fortunate enough to come across this one on the trail again:
And later, along a stream, we actually saw her sitting in repose:
It turns out she was a very friendly fox.