It hit me like a ton of bricks. ~ Jane
When we pulled two lifeless baby foxes from under the shed floor, I knew I had made the wrong decision yesterday.
Yesterday, we took in a baby fox that someone thought had been abandoned. I believed the same. I had seen at least one parent nearby, but I assumed the baby had been left behind because it was sick. That can happen sometimes. I didn’t want to look inside the den because disturbing it can scare the mother away—and we never want to cause harm by making an animal orphaned. We only step in when we have to.
At the vet this morning, we found out there was nothing really wrong with the baby fox—just some dehydration.
Then I watched a video the person who found the fox had sent me. It showed a fox moving the baby out of the den. That’s when it hit me… that wasn’t the mom. There were no signs of nursing. That was the dad—and he looked very sick, likely with mange.
That made me wonder: where was the mom? Was she sick too? Or was she already gone? I started to feel really uneasy. I called the finder and told him if he saw or heard any more baby foxes crying or wandering outside the den, he should call us right away.
Just 30 minutes later, he saw another baby outside. We rushed over—but Swansea is about an hour and a half away. We brought the wildlife ambulance and were ready to do whatever we needed to help the rest of the litter.
This second baby looked worse than the one we took in yesterday. We put her in the incubator immediately. I was almost sure something had happened to the mom. Outside the den, we saw a pile of dead rodents. It’s normal for the dad to bring food to the mom while she nurses, and later to the kits as they grow. But no one had touched the food. Another sign that mom wasn’t there anymore.
When we opened the shed floor and looked inside, everything became clear. Mom was gone. Dad must have known. The rodents he left weren’t for mom—they were his desperate attempt to feed his babies. Sadly, they were too young to eat solid food. They had been starving.
I also noticed that this yard was very close to a shopping plaza full of bait boxes. Most likely, mom had eaten a poisoned rat and died. The poison may have weakened dad’s immune system too, causing the mange. Even while sick, he was still trying to take care of his kits. But he didn’t know that the large rat and mice he left for them were probably poisoned too.
By law, I can’t trap dad. All I can do is hope to catch him if he shows up again—but he probably won’t now that his family is gone.
There’s no way for me to tell him we have his two surviving babies. All I can do now is fight to save the one we picked up today. She’s in rough shape. I can feel a little bit of relief when I look at the other baby we rescued yesterday—who’s now doing great.
I’m trying to forgive myself for the mistake I made yesterday.
And I can make sure this fox family’s story is shared with anyone who will listen.
— Newhouse Wildlife Rescue