Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Fox and the Hound


This is a good story. The past week or so, Cindy the Wonder Dog and I have been walking in our Queenston Shale Valley. This is a beautiful slice of Nature in the middle of the city, precisely due to a change in the characteristics of the shale, from large-slab limestone interbeds, to pure shale. In the pure shale sequences it cuts down fast, and in the slab sequences it becomes flat.

So, every day we saunter along, Cindy snuffling along and running up and down the valley sides. She has the world's worst dog-nose, and only see things when they are moving. So every day she has zoomed right by this vixen without seeing it. And the darn fox comes down from the hill and starts fox-barking at her! I don't know if you ever heard a fox bark, but it sounds like somebody strangling a raven! Then Cindy trundles along after it, and the fox goes through a narrow fence. Ha, ha, fun fox games! Or so I thought.

Today Cindy caught her in the den, and she was not happy. Luckily, it's a big pile of sticks, and Cindy is above that sort of thing. So we pretend to leave, and she pops out for the photo. I had hoped to get a video of the bark and games, but that will have to wait. I guess she was just leading Cindy away from the den.

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