Let Sleeping...

...dogs foxes lie. Next door's cat N seen sneaking up on the sleeping fox. He then thought better of it and retired.

But all is not as bucolic it seems here. We saw the fox come into the garden at 10am and watched it select this place to rest and snuggle up to the branch but were alarmed to see how it was limping and that half of its tail was missing (see extra 1). Further examination of the many photos I took from an upstairs window shows that its left ear has a notch and its left eye seems to be damaged (extra 2). I am not certain but there may also be an injury on its right shoulder.

Although we are pleased to have a fox community nearby, from previous camera shots and blips, which include injuries and at least one blind in its left eye, it seems that they are by no means a healthy population. Most of our neighbours have cats rather than dogs so I wonder how they come by these severe injuries. It is painful to see but it seems that there is little we can do to help the afflicted as we rarely see the same individuals except on the trail camera footage in the night.