My dad came across an abandoned fox cub when he was of primary school age. He cared and looked after it but when it got older it was crying each night to be let out. It was causing a lot of disturbance and much annoyance to the neighbours. So rather reluctantly he had to let it go. Thankfully though the fox still visited my dad.
He was really happy when he came across a fox's den near our house. That was fourteen years ago and it turned out that six cubs were born there. My dad started feeding them so since then we have had them at our door every night since.
We are now at the great grandchild stage and it's been an absolute joy having them all here. They bring so much joy and happiness. They are all named and they know their names too.
There was a time in 2008 a few days before bonfire night when there were loads of random fireworks getting thrown about and the noise was frightening. That was the first night ever that the foxes didn't turn up. This went on for three nights in a row. We were so upset and thought that they’d been spooked and moved off to live somewhere else and we wouldn’t see them again.
It was midnight and we were all heading to bed and the security light went on. We ran to the door and we were so happy to see one of our foxes, Sophie. We got her some food and she kept walking away from us. We followed her and she took us to the side of the house where our wheelie bin was up in flames, right beside our gas box.
It turned out someone had put lit fireworks inside our bin!
When we spoke with the fireman they said if we weren't alerted to that fire we would've certainly come to harm. So we believe Sophie saved our lives.
There have also been funny incidents with them too.
One morning, around 1am, two foxes were having a bit of a barney. My sister who was in her nightdress and slippers decided that she was going out to intervene. When she came back out of the bushes the police were driving by and, as we stay across the road from a care home, they stopped, thinking that she'd escaped. They didn't believe her when she said, ‘I stay in that house over there. I'm just out here to stop my foxes fighting!’
But that didn't help and they led her by the arm to the care home door. She pleaded with them and said, ‘Please go over to that house and my sister will tell you.’
They came over and I was very tempted to say, ‘Oh she does live in the care home and she's always escaping.’
It was so funny, a golden moment.