Spotting a Silver Fox

I woke up today feeling out of sorts. I have been sleeping very badly of late and each day I feel more tired than the day before.

I am trying hard to keep to my normal routine and am, in general, doing well. This morning I got up at six and headed straight out the door for a country walk.

I had a stinking headache from lack of sleep, so I downed some water and decided to take a different route, heading down some winding country roads with farms stretched out on either side for as far as the eye could see.

It was bliss.

Having just finished a very very good Audibles book, The Enchanted April, I’d decided to forego my usual head phones, instead deciding to listen to the music of the nature which surrounded me.

A cockerel greeted me on the way out.

As I walked, birds (grouse?) waddled across the the lane, out of a hedge on one side and straight into the hedge on the other side.

Tiny earth piles sat by the hedgerows, a sign that a hungry squirrel had been searching for last year’s stash of nuts, or perhaps a lazy rabbit or two had attempted to burrow and gave up, preferring instead to graze on the nearby grass.

There were, after all, many many little rabbits enjoying the early morning sun.

Up ahead of me, my eyes suddenly caught sight of something unfamiliar. It was an animal which looked just like a large fox, and was behaving just like foxes do (timid, alert and ready to run). This fox, though, was not a familiar burnt red colour. It was a black grey.

Perhaps it was a large cat?

But, no, I really did not think so. It was too fox-like to be anything other than a fox.

And yet…

I arrived back home feeling invigorated and 100% better than I had felt on leaving. I had many plans for the day, so this was a very good thing. I knew I needed to get some writing done, edit a couple of videos, cook dinner for some very special people coming for dinner and spend the afternoon chatting over some important stuff with Gary.

But first, I needed to look up this fox creature I had spotted.

Was I imagining things?

As it turned out, I was not!

There is a very rare, melanotic fox. A recessive version of the red kind.

I feel completely privileged to have seen one and really disappointed that I didn’t take my camera and get a picture.

I shall have another look tomorrow.