Hmmm……It’s Gone

 I wrote a rather lengthy, albeit dull, post last night and it doesn’t seem to have posted.  Maybe the powers that be decided it was not post-worthy.  Oh well, it probably wasn’t.  It was just about my shopping habits and my reading habits and all that has been covered before so maybe it is for the best.

I have been reading a book titled “The Art of Inheriting Secrets” by Barbara O’Neal.  It is about Olivia Shaw, an American (native Californian to be exact) who learned, upon her mother’s death, that she has inherited a gigantic manor house in England that is falling apart and a title.  She is Lady Olivia Shaw, Countess of Rosemere Priory.  Now, Olivia’s mother never told her about any of this — the house, the title, her life before immigrating to California — this came out of the blue and has sort of gob smacked Olivia.  Needing to deal with the legalities she made a trip to England to sort things out and learned that while she knew nothing of this part of her mother’s life, everybody knew her! And they were jolly well not very thrilled about her being there! Clearly there is a mystery to be solved, a romantic take on it considering she is very disenchanted with her American fiancé and has met the very charming Samir (Sam).  So, that is where I am — It is getting to that point that I can’t put it down.  I love it when that happens.  Now if it would just rain a bit!  Perfect reading environment

I have always liked, in my writing, to name my house.  I like the British idea of naming houses — here we don’t do that officially but I like the idea.  In my new house, the one we are currently in that isn’t really new except to me, I have had difficulty coming up with a name.  I have been calling it Brinkley Cottage but I think I have come upon something much more fitting — Fox Hollow on Prairie.  Clearly this has something to do with the fox population inhabiting our back yard.

I have been doing a lot of reading about grey foxes and they are really pretty interesting.  They aren’t a species to be feared particularly which is good — unless you are a mouse, rat or, their favorite, a cotton tailed rabbit.  I have seen them with all of those.  They do, however, leave the possum alone and we seem to have two of those that trip through the yard.

Anyway, it seems that they are denners and only use their dens during mating/birthing season which is January/April.  It takes 53 days for the pregnancy to complete and once the babies are born it takes them about 4 months to become fully independent and able to hunt without their parents.  I think this is the period of time that we came to be fully aware of their presence.  

We have had several captures of four of them on our camera — two clearly smaller than the other two — and we assumed they were pups — or kits — or cubs whichever name you prefer.  Well, over the course of two or three weeks we have watched them run like crazy, play, catch mice and climb trees — yes, climb trees which I didn’t realize foxes did but the ability only lies with grey foxes not red foxes.  Apparently they also like to rest in trees, like cats.  Fortunately I haven’t seen that yet.

In the last two weeks we have seen the youngsters disappear which makes sense because at about 4 months they go off to do their own thing.  We have seen the other two come around less and less and not really hang out for very long and for the last few days, there has only been one.  From what I have read, once the mating/child rearing season is over and the babes are gone, the parents leave because they only use the den for mating/child rearing purposes and they don’t live there full time.  Kind of like Airbnb for foxes.  At that point, which is where we are at, they will leave and most likely come back in January when the whole cycle starts again because it seems they return to the den they have previously used. So, it is probably not unusual to see them less and less and perhaps they will go away completely until winter.  While I have enjoyed watching them after being initially terrified of them, I wouldn’t mind if they went away forever.  Not destroyed, just maybe find a better den.  We have closed up three sides of the deck and if I knew they were gone I would have Hubs close up the fourth but they do burrow so if they wanted to get in they could  by digging under — seems the only way to get rid of them short of having them picked up is to dismantle the deck and I doubt that is going to to happen so I guess we will have to learn to co-habitate.  Maybe they will leave until January — that would be good too.  I will take it.

I really can’t believe it is August! What happened to summer?  I am upset over the surges in covid again — Texas is a hot spot — and I am not looking forward to the chaos that will ensue when school starts.  But, I will be glad for the weather to cool down.  I am really over the heat and it hasn’t really been that bad but I am dealing with it less and less as I age.  

So, I am going to get a cool drink and meet up with Olivia Shaw and see what is going on at Rosemere Priory.