16 thoughts on “Hopelessly tangled fox rescued from soccer net”

  1. Awww….

    Two observations.

    First, it’s amazing how scruffing the fox produces so viscerally identical a reaction to the one in kittens. That instinct obviously goes back to at least the common ancestor of all carnivores.

    Second…I’d first have freed the legs whilst the head was still tangled up. The fox wasn’t in any danger that I could see of strangulation, so might as well let the net control the head. Plus, that would have given the legs a bit more time to restore circulation.

    Regardless, I’m glad that there’re humans who take the time to help such beautiful animals as these that get into trouble because of other humans…and I bet this particular poor cub will never go anywhere near a football pitch ever again!

    b&

    1. kittens and puppies and adult cats! I scruff 14-yr-old Fred all the time and he just relaxes into it.

      1. Baihu, too…I’ve even been known to bite his scruff whilst giving him a bellyrub with one hand and scratching his back with the other….

        b&

    3. It might have been safer/easier with one person holding the fox and the other cutting the net. Unfortunately, the second human was too busy with the video camera to help out 😉

  2. I like how spunky he was! Even trying to bite after he was out of the net. Cute! I’d want to keep him.

  3. A fox ran through our yard in a totally suburban neighborhood as I returned this morning from an early morning walk. Sadly, he was gone before I could grab my camera. I’ll try to be more prepared in the future.

    1. A fox ran through our yard in a totally suburban neighborhood

      Nothing unusual about that. I see foxes in the city centre (3 miles in from the nearest “countryside”) all the time. My visceral feeling is that they’re getting more common, and I hear reports of the same from larger cities further south. I suspect that as the cubs are getting brought up in a city environment, they’re less stressed by the noise and the traffic, and then go on to bring up another generation of cubs who’re even more comfortable in an urban environment. Behavioural plasticity evolving very rapidly by Lamarkian inheritance of acquired (behavioural) characteristics.

  4. I know it’s sad, but if more than 30% of fox pups survived every year England would be knee deep in foxes. Nonetheless I’m glad to see the little guy saved.

    1. That’s kind of a funny visual if you think about it. Imagine people on the streets of London wading through a writhing sea of rust colored pelts.
      “I’m sorry I was late boss, the foxes were almost waist deep today.”

  5. There was a tense moment there, when he almost ran into the net AGAIN in making his “getaway”!

  6. I once had to cut a snake out of a soccer net – it wasn’t very happy either. Good thing I had leather gloves and it wasn’t poisonous.

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