Mitchell the Drifter (A fox)

About one month ago I went down to the barn to feed the goats, something I have done every day for the past eight years.  Sometimes I whistle a little tune that the goats are familiar with and sometimes I can be heard saying, “Good morning boys.”  I don’t think I was whistling or talking to them that particular morning when I came about five feet from what looked like a newborn fawn laying in a nest in the hay.  Upon closer look I realized it was not a fawn but a fox.  He was a beautiful red fox. I just assumed it was a male.  He did not get up and I stopped dead in my tracks and was not sure what to do.  The goats looked at me as if to say, “What’s wrong, mom?”  And the fox did the same thing, as if to say, “I’ve always been here.”  No, no you haven’t.  I thought all of them seemed to know each other, how long had this been going on?

I didn’t feed the goats and I left quietly, not knowing if the fox was sick or rabid. John was working so I got a hold of a neighbor to come and look at him for me. It would be about an hour before he could get here.  In the meantime I named him Mitchell after a hitchhiker from Chicago I picked up in 1978.  I guess I figured this fox just drifted into my life a lot like the hitchhiker did.  When my neighbor arrived, Mitchell was gone but the indent in the hay was there for proof of my discovery. Mitchell looked healthy, no mange or apparent diseases but I looked up information on the internet about what I should look out for.  Basically if he was too comfortable and approached me it was not a good sign.  I found out foxes don’t get rabies very often and I would be more likely to get bit by a dog than a fox.  Foxes get a bad rap from cartoons, too, as they usually are depicted as the evil ones. 

We have bales of hay in the barn and Mitchell could be hiding between them.  It was pretty apparent that he was not “afraid” of me and likely had been watching and listening to me for some time to simply lie in the hay as his way of introducing himself to me.  With no real reason for concern I just kept a look out for him.  Twice I saw him up by our garage, sort of peeking around the corner;  another time the hay bales were “moving.”  John saw him twice and one of those times our dog did, too. She chased him into the woods.  I would call for him when I went to see the goats and I would ask them about him but they were not talking.  I have good reason to believe Mitchell and our cat stayed in our garage together one night.

I talked to a Christian veterinarian friend about Mitchell and he said he could have been rejected by his pack for some reason and has found a home and a friendship with the goats, he’d been accepted. He also made me think about the Scripture where the “lion lays down with the lamb.”  You know how it is in Heaven  It was a beautiful picture and believe it or not, I fell in love with Mitchell. I know that must sound a bit strange but if my goats loved him, I could too.

About the time I really was hoping he showed up he did, but not in the way I was happy about.  I went to let the goats out into their outdoor pen.  I opened the gate and there he was lying in their pen on his side.  I prayed he was breathing but upon further inspection he wasn’t.  Did the goats step on him?  My poor Mitchell.  He didn’t appear to have any marks or blood on him just his lifeless body in the hay.  So I did what any good mom would do, I got a box, picked him up and put him in the trunk of a car to take to someone who could tell me why he died. 

The general consensus was this.  He was very skinny and likely old.  So we think he was kicked out of his pack as animals often do when death is near and he found friendship with the goats.  He could come in from the elements where it was dry and warm and safe to live his last days out.  I buried him and put flowers on his grave.  For an animal I never even got to pet or hold he found a special place in my heart and I’ve cried more tears at the simple beauty of this unlikely bond.  

Experiencing Mitchell made me start to realize greater possibilities in the animal kingdom when it comes to the Lord’s Prayer, “On earth as it is in Heaven.”  What a glorious time that will be on planet earth. 

Isaiah 11: 6-9

The wolf will live with the lamb,
    the leopard will lie down with the goat,

the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
    and a little child will lead them.

 The cow will feed with the bear,
    their young will lie down together,
    and the lion will eat straw like the ox.

 The infant will play near the cobra’s den,
    and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.
They will neither harm nor destroy
    on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord
    as the waters cover the sea.