Our home in London is in a suburb bordered by three large parks. In keeping, in any week during the spring and summer, it would be unusual if we did not see urban foxes either sauntering down one of our roads or walking along the top of the wall at the back of our garden. How people view these traditionally ‘wild’ animals varies greatly – in a recently published survey, just over a half said they saw them as ‘foe’, while the remainder share our views, so like Rohan and I they regard them as ‘friend’.

As foe, they are akin to noisy scavengers, to pests, to garden wreckers (digging, fouling), to disease spreaders and ultimately to vermin warranting extermination. As friend, however, it is all very different: we view them as welcome, endearing, ‘handsome’ and precious; indeed, sharing space with them deserves celebration. Yes, they can be ‘antisocial’, as for example when they rummage through dustbins and scatter food debris, but such behaviour is forgiven by their ‘friends’ who counter criticism by telling how through their hunting they help the community by controlling the number of mice and rats! Perhaps it is not surprising that amongst the eleven people in our own little community the range of opinions very much reflects those found in the survey. 

This blog tells how those eleven, who live in eight houses each with its front door opening on to a common garden of trees and bushes, responded when a vixen and her cubs set up home in the back garden of one of our houses. 

It was the night-time yapping, snorting and squealing, accompanied by the barking of a neighbour’s anxious dog, that made us suspect that a litter of fox cubs had taken up residence, but it was several weeks before their presence was actually confirmed. Later still it was realised that the siting of their ‘home’ could ultimately result in disaster – it seemed that the fox cubs were trapped! 

Over the years most of the eight houses have been ‘modernised’ and the benefits of the changes to one house are key  to this story. The owners, who had been away for a while, had removed two of the internal downstair walls, had lowered various downstair windows and had, as is their practice, left open their back and front downstair curtains.  

Two weeks ago after our return from France we, that is Rohan and I and four neighbours, were standing outside the neighbour’s empty house catching up with news generally and also discussing the suspect fox cubs. Then, suddenly, Rohan who was staring right through the house to its back yard shouted “Quick, look, there are two, possibly three small fox cubs tumbling over one another in the yard, and on the bench I can see the mother laying stretched out and basking in the sun”. We all looked and, with the presence of the litter confirmed, everything changed.   

The house owners were contacted and on their return a week later they would sort things out. In the meantime, by the judicious use of a long step-ladder we, as direct neighbours, kept an eye on developments. Three things soon became clear. First, there were four cubs. Second, the height of the walls-plus-trellis surrounding the yard and the absence of anything on which to climb inside meant that the pups were too small to escape unaided. Third, each day the cubs became thinner, and with no obvious visits by their mother who might just still be suckling them, and no supply of water in the yard itself, their future looked bleak. Occasionally, the cubs would come out of their ‘earth’ but when they did they just stared ahead (see second illustration). As starving, thirsty  prisoners, there was an air of despair!

When the owners returned, there was much discussion and a plan was hatched. They put a ramp up to the top of the wall (see first illustration) and made a hole through the trellis, so that, with guidance from their mother, the cubs might be led to safety. If this failed, they would have to be put down!

Based on the squeals and chatter that were heard during the following nights, the mother must have returned twice and led her cubs to freedom; on the first night she helped three escape, on the second she came back for her fourth. That achieved, the ramp was removed. News of the great escape spread fast and amongst the fox ‘friends’ there was much rejoicing. I can only guess what the fox ‘foe’ lobby felt but I am not going to ask!

The first illustration is a photo of the makeshift ramp built to allow the cubs to leave their garden enclosure; the second illustration shows two of the four underfed and worried-looking fox cubs just before their escape.

For helping me write this blog, I would like to thank Ish, Sage, Jennie, Kaye, Rohan and Vivien.