It’s springtime now, and for NEWC that means it’s time to start raising baby animals. We see a lot of squirrels, opossums, robins, grackles, and raccoons, but right now we have two rarer patients that we’re very excited about. These two are red foxes. They have had a pretty rough start, but now that they’re with us we’ll make sure that they get a second chance for health and happiness out in the wild.
Their story actually starts with a couple named Amy and Fred Carlsen. They were out walking their daughter’s dogs on March 15th when one of the dogs, Meeka, smelled something interesting behind a chain-link fence. When Amy and Fred went over, they found three dead fox pups outside of a den with two baby foxes still alive inside. One of them came out to bark, but the other was quiet and stayed mostly hidden.
Fred and Amy left some dried dog food for the pups, but they were still worried about their safety due to the fact that three of them had already died. They called Brockton Animal Control and Megan Hanrahan, an amazing ACO who has brought an incredible amount of rescued wildlife to us at NEWC, came to investigate. Megan had found a dead adult fox hit by a car in the area shortly before this, and so she knew that the pups needed to be taken care of. When she arrived at the den, she was only able to recover one pup, and assumed that the second had unfortunately already passed away like the original three.
Just in case, Megan left safe and humane traps with food and water around the area to see if the second fox could be found. Foxes are social animals, and need to be raised with others close to their age. It was very important to find the second fox both for its sake and for the fox she had already rescued.
After several days with no results, Animal Control pulled the traps as it looked pretty hopeless for the last baby. The Carlsens were still invested though, and they wanted to be absolutely sure. They took pictures inside of the den to see if they could get any sign of the last fox, and amazingly he was actually in there, huddled into a back corner hiding from the world.
Amy and Fred immediately called Animal Control, and Megan came right over with a freshly baited trap. She asked the Carlsens to check the trap in a few hours and to call her if there were any results. When they came back to see, the fox was in the trap! He had gotten hungry enough that fresh food right by the entrance to his den overcame his fear. Amy and Fred called Megan right away, and she came over immediately to get the fox. He was brought to us at NEWC the very next morning.
Now the foxes are both with us, and are receiving medical treatment for their roundworms. They are both eating well and are looking great, and should grow up just fine.
We’re very grateful for the effort Amy, Fred, and Megan all put into this rescue mission, and we’re thankful that it worked out so well in the end. It’s always wonderful when orphaned wildlife get a happy ending!
