Fox on roof
Posted by Richard on August 16, 2009
A couple of weeks ago, around 11PM, I'd just returned from a BBQ at my neighbors' and was standing on my front porch. Suddenly, a fox ran down the sidewalk past me. I admit I'd had a few adult beverages, but I wasn't drunk, and I was certain it was a fox. It looked like a fox and it had a gait like a fox.
Now, this was unusual because of where I live. I'm a block off South Broadway, a major 4-lane arterial, in a densely-built (most lots are 33 ft. wide) 90+-year-old urban neighborhood, not some subdivision. Our wildlife consists mainly of squirrels and pigeons (btw, I hate the latter with a passion).
But if I thought seeing a fox run past was unusual, I hadn't seen anything yet.
Tonight after dinner (it was still light out), I took my indoor recycling bin to the big bin by my detached garage. My neighbors' dogs were barking up a storm. I thought it was just at me (they bark at everything that moves), but as I started back toward the house, I caught a glimpse of something on my roof out of the corner of my eye. It was a fox. Sitting on the roof of my house. And I've got the picture to prove it.
Who knew foxes could climb trees? (No, there's no other possible way up there. Except with a little fox-sized hang glider.)
After snapping a couple of pictures (with the low battery light glaring at me), I went in and grabbed the phone book and phone. I wanted to call Denver's animal control office and find out what, if anything, one needed to do about a fox on the roof.
After several minutes of looking through the government pages, I gave up. Have you ever noticed how user-unfriendly the government listings in the phone book are? A person looking for the animal control number for Denver ought to be able to find it in the Denver City section under "A," dammit. It's probably in the Denver County section, listed under whatever department its part of with a totally unguessable name, but I never found it.
Anyway, I decided to call the non-emergency police number for District 3 and ask them how to contact animal control. So I took the phone out back to verify that the fox was still there before dialing. And it wasn't.
I'm glad I got a picture, or nobody would believe me.
David Bryant said
I live near Washington Park, about two miles from your house, Richard. Foxes are spotted in my neighborhood fairly regularly. About 3 or 4 years ago Kathryn and I saw a pair of foxes corner, kill, and eat an alley cat — it was night time, in the winter, and the foxes were very efficient.
The conventional wisdom in my neighborhood is that the foxes live and breed over at the Denver Country Club. They’re often seen running along Cherry Creek. Not sure how one got over to your neighborhood, but two miles isn’t all that far for a fox. dcb
Rick Shultz said
Damn nice shot Richard! The ones you don’t see coming sometimes turn out to be the best ones. I’m not crazy about digital
cameras (I still use my Minolta X-700), but this one turned out really well. We rarely ever see foxes around Chattanooga. We
see tons of raccoons, but not foxes. It’s a bit strange, you’d think there’d be more of them here because of the mountains,
but all we seem to get are coons and coyotes, which are both a damned nuisance.
rgcombs said
I talked with a couple of neighbors the other day. One of them, a woman who lives about a block from me on Sherman, said she’s more than once seen a fox emerging from a storm drain on the corner of Sherman and Louisiana.
She didn’t appear to be delusional or drugged. 🙂
Stacy said
Strange – I had a fox on my roof this morning – so I googled “fox on roof” and found this website – I live in Northglenn