Saturday, May 21

Freyja and Valla- Best of friends



Gosh Valla has grown so much since my last entry, it is amazing!


She is known in our home as my shadow as she follows me everywhere from the moment I wake up, even into the shower!

I cannot believe how attached I have become to this little tyke in such a short amount of time but to be fair I was the same with all of my fur kids. With Valla though it is a little different in that she knows she relies on me and she always seems to grateful. She learns so fast! Not only can she now run up the stairs in our house but she can come down just as fast. She has worked out that the fridge is where her milk and food comes from so when I open the door she does a little dance and runs to the bottle steriliser as she knows that is my next stop. She also will come from the other end of the house if I call her name faster then any of the dogs and then she rolls around on the floor as though she is SO happy to see me and when I bend to pick her up she will give me kisses on the lips hehe. Not something I intended as I taught her to kiss on the cheek but I suppose she has seen Audrey kiss me on the lips and thought that was the thing to do.

I also love how if she wants to take a nap when I am home she will call for me so she can snuggle on me as she knows she is safe with me.

My partner was feeling a little unloved as I have a little fox shadow and yet he did not. Valla does not need him how she needs me even when I am not home she would prefer to sleep down the back of the sofa then with him and so my partner decided he wanted his own little fox but as corsacs are my 'thing' he chose an Arctic.

On May 18th we went to collect his bundle of joy; a little 8 week old bottle raised blue arctic fox. When we went to get her we were in fox heaven as there were quite a few little kits there all so very adorable we had quite a job choosing one. The one we chose stuck out to me though as the only white bit or her whole body is the tip of her tail and the undersides of her paw pads. Thank you Lorna and Dave for a lovely few hours and our new fur baby.


Now the reason it has taken us so long to let you all know about Freyja the arctic fox is as we could not agree on a name. I liked Freyja which is the name of a viking Goddess but my partner though this name made her sound like she should be a member of Abba hehe. We looked at allot of Inuit names but I had no idea how to pronounce any of them so in the end Freyja stuck.


Upon arriving home I was greeted by Valla charging at me as she had been spending the day with her human granddad and thus was loose in the house. She was all excited to see me which always makes me so happy. At the time I was holding Freyja who wanted to get down and meet Valla so very much so I let her. Within minuets the two of them were running around like the very best of friends! Valla showed her the litter tray, her crate, the dogs, her toys and even that she has her very own steps to get up to my knee when I am at my desk. Valla seems very happy to have this new friend.


The whole evening the girls were so happy to play with each other until they were warn out. Valla came over to me and climbed onto my knee, Freyja followed, Valla was NOT impressed! It would seem that I am Valla's Mummy and though it is fine to share toys, litter trays and dogs it is NOT fine to share me. I found this to be so amusing as every time Freyja wanted a cuddle Valla would charge at her shouting making her retreat. I suppose this is one way to assure my partner that he gets to have Freyja as HIS fox.


One of the most interesting things we have found is how much arctic foxes smell. Now Corsacs smell like. . . Well nothing. Fennecs have a slight smell to them but arctic's really, really smell! They truly stink to high heavens!

I was ready for this as I have read allot about them.

Some people find they do not smell but after talking to some other 'fox people' it seems that woman can smell it allot more then most men can. I tried out this theory and my partners Dad who has been trained so smell what various chemicals smell of could not smell the smell where as his Mum had to leave the room for fear of vomiting. Freyja went to the range with my partner last night and none of the guys could smell the horrid smell. There are many studies pertaining to pigs (specifically a hormone smell called boar taint) that show that different people do smell certain pheromones and odours differently. Females are more prone to being offended by these types of smells. This could account for why some people don't think foxes stink while others do.. . Very odd

I bathed Freyja the day she came home but even during the time she was drying the smell came back. I do not think that if I bathe her very often this will help as like humans with oily hair the more they wash the worse the hair gets so I shall only bathe Freyja once every two weeks, maybe less often. I hope her new diet will help the smell too so shall keep you all updated.


It is quite striking how much larger then Valla Freyja is. She is about twice her size! I am glad they are both so gentle when they play with each other though I would never let them play without a human watching. Something that I found interesting from the first time they play fought was that if Valla shouts Freyja will let her go and step back so Valla can stand up, the same happens the other way around. It is as though they have a safe word.

The two of them are quite the little thieves. On the second day Freyja was here both Freyja and Valla each stole one of my partner socks. Little did my partner expect to see either sock again let alone both socks and both foxes in one place (behind the sofa hehe)!

So I have a video of them paying but I have not sorted it out yet on my PC as I am not at home right now, I shall sort that out as soon as I can.

I think that is you all up to date. . . I probably missed something. . . We shall see!

4 comments:

  1. Kenti was a bit stinky, but she only got REALLY stinky when she was scared or mad. I haven't been around arctics at all, but I hear the smell doesn't go away.
    Freyja sure is cute! Yay for Valla having a new playmate!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well when I cuddle Freyja her smell rubs off onto my clothing, same goes for anywhere she sleeps and such (including when she rests on Valla doh!) Fingers corssed that when she has been on a really good diet for a while it will help. -Elina

    ReplyDelete
  3. if i remember correct that is just arctics natural odour its excreted from glands in the back end of the fox kinda like a skunk, only way to get her to stop smelling is to remove the glands but that is really invasive and theres a crapload of bieffects that could come up

    ReplyDelete
  4. Well actually you are apparently meant to be able to get arctics to smell less by giving them a good diet and prior to Freyja coming home she was just fed rats. Also Freyja was wrongly sold to us as an Arctic, she is actually a silver fox (vulpes vulpes) which was a big shock for all involved hehe http://theflashmans.blogspot.com/2011/05/freyja-silver-fox.html -Elina

    ReplyDelete