Lady and the Fox

I want a dog. I really do. But I can’t have one. I travel too much, I’m never home during the day, and most evenings I get home late. But I still want a dog. I can’t help it.

Several times since I’ve moved to London I’ve contemplated alternative pets that require less care than a dog. For a while I considered a hedgehog. Then it was a skunk; de-scented, of course.

But I couldn’t get away from the fact that I really just wanted a cute furry animal of the canine variety.

Enter the fox. Last year my boyfriend and I had regular visits from a neighborhood fox in Hampstead, including the time it showed up uninvited to our summer barbecue and the day in spring when it ate my flip flops.

I would see the fox on occasion on the street outside my building or in the walkway near my old flat.

I had high hopes it would become my surrogate dog, hanging out when it was convenient for me and taking care of itself when I wasn’t around.

But then the fox disappeared. I didn’t see it for months, and I feared the worst. So much for my dreams of having a fox-dog!

But today things took a sudden turn for the better. I’ve been sick all week, so rather than infecting my office with germs as I’m propelled into coughing spasms every five seconds, I’ve been working from home in Hampstead.

As I went to heat up a bowl of chicken soup my boyfriend made for me the other day, I glanced out the kitchen window into the garden. A fox!

There she was, sleeping peacefully in the sun. So peacefully, in fact, that at first I thought she was a dog.

What kind of wild animal sleeps in broad daylight the middle of an open garden? A lion, maybe, but certainly not a fox. Maybe she’s more of a fox-cat than a fox-dog. Either way, I’m smitten.

I stood at the window for a while, taking pictures, texting my boyfriend, and spilling chicken soup down my chin as I tried to eat and photograph at the same time (one of life’s biggest challenges!).

The fox woke up after a few minutes, looked around, then walked over to an even sunnier spot.

She scratched her chin for a while, sniffed around the garden, prowled about for a bit, then came back to her original spot and curled up for another catnap.

Hours later, when the sun had disappeared, she sauntered off. I don’t know where she went, but I’m certainly hoping she’ll be back again soon. Maybe I’ll have my fox-dog someday after all!

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