One month and four days

Today it has been 1 month and 4 days since Slush arrived and turned Sapphire back into the happy go lucky girl we all know her to be.

I must be honest, I was worried to post in-case something suddenly happened to him like with Logan, I just did not want to jinx it.  Silly I know but with the luck I have had this last year I was just so worried.

A few days after we got Slush we took him to the vets. He is 100% healthy which was a real weight off our minds. Not that we thought anything was wrong with him, more that we just wanted to be sure. The vet believes Slush to be between 2-3years of age which makes him a fair bit older then Sapphire who is not yet one but I don't mind, so long as Sapphire is happy I am happy.

This last month has been really interesting to watch as Slush has been worming his way into Sapphire's heart. He started with grooming her, then he started hauling blankets from inside their house for her to sleep on in the sun (shame he does no take them back in when it rains hehe), then he noticed that Sapphire likes to give kisses so he kisses her (on the lips and everything) which is all quite romantic!

For a while I was not too sure if his ways of winning her over were exactly working. Sapphire was not sleeping curled up with him and as he is unable to jump atop her level she was sleeping more and more often up there as though she was trying to escape him. I would not actually be too surprised if she was trying to escape him as for every romantic thing he would do he would then try to hump her which Sapphire was not a fan of. . . Mind you Sapphire was not exactly innocent in all of this, she is very much a little flirt!

One morning after I had heard Slush doing his mating call nearly ALL night I went to a window which faces my garage and Logan's old enclosure which is where they are housed and to my surprise I could see neither of them! Had they escaped?!

I quickly donned my robe and ran to their enclosure as fast as I could calling "Pie? Pie?" my slippers were getting muddy as the lawn was still damp with dew. I fumbled with the keys and the combination lock as I was so very worried. Once I was inside the enclosure I was not greeted with my customary morning kisses and screams of delight! Where were my little princess and her new prince charming?! I ran to their shed and opened the door to my relief curled up in the XL dog bed which was atop of the kennel, my fur balls were okay! Sapphire looked up at me with a HUGE smile on her little face as she stretched her front paws out. I walked over still shaking from worry and cuddled her tighter then I think I have ever cuddled her as she let out a little squeak which she does not normally do (oops, maybe a bit too tight). Slush continued to sleep which was odd as he is normally very much on his toes when I am around.

How on earth Slush managed to get up there continued to be a big mystery to me until a couple of days ago when I set aside a few hours to wrestle him into his collar. It turns out scrabbling really does help where your jumping may fall just a little short. . .

So it looks like though it took him a few weeks Slush is now allowed to sleep in the same bed as Sapphire at bed time however nap time is still a no-no if it is warm outside. If it is warm Slush is expected by Sapphire to sleep out in the sun while she will have the whole shed to herself! . . . Well I never said Sapphire was not greedy.

On March 28th I got Slush his first bale of hay. You may wonder what exactly is so great about a bale of hay for a fox, they are not rabbits, they don't eat it. Well instead of merely eating it they rub against it to help them remove their winter coat, they roll in it to smell nice, they pounce on it as they like the sound and the feeling under their feet, they make nests with it. . the list goes on and on! I honestly think a bale of hay is one of the more fun things one can give a fox. I actually filmed Sapphire and Slush playing in the hay for you all to enjoy!

Some of it is cut quite randomly. This is as Slush was being his randy self and as I do not like seeing that sort of thing I did not think any of you would either.

Today my daughter Audrey was spending some time with Sapphire. They spend allot of time together every day and have become very close. I would go as far as to say they love each other:

 

Well today Audrey wanted to make a video for school talking about Sapphire and how they are the best of friends. . . Well it did not exactly go to plan. . .

It started well enough, Audrey was not worried about talking to the camera:

But then as if from nowhere Slush came out of the house and tried to run off with Audrey's jeans, pulling them down in the process!:

Thankfully Audrey was not at all upset with him and actually found it all to be hilarious! 

Well I must be off, it is 02:30 and I must get some sleep as must the foxies:

 

Goodnight! 

The spare enclosure and other news.

Yikes I am SO behind the main reason for which being that my camera has been missing since November and my old camera was in storage. Needless to say is is not any longer.

I believe one of the foxes, namely Harry has nabbed it but I do like to wonder what someone would think if I lost it in a public place and they found it as on the memory card there are photos of Valla and Sprite in the Halloween costumes, Harry and Elspeth's second birthday party and various other photos of just foxes lazing around.

So anyway yes on November 13th it was Harry and Elspeth's second birthday! It amazes me that they have only been with me for such a short amount of time and yet they have shaped my life so very much and changed the way I think about so many things. . . Speaking of which as I type this I am sitting at my desk, at home with five and a half, maybe a quarter socks on my desk, one of my partners slippers and two felt tip pens all of which have been confiscated from Harry, Elspeth and Rudi in the last 45 mins.

The question is would I go back in time and change my predicament so my desk was once more free from their treasures? No way! I love all 9 of my fox kids and I would never have it any other way. I actually asked my partner and daughter the same question and my daughter said the only thing she would change is she would make Akiko sleep in her room so she could be her fox (this might I add shall never happen of else neither of them shall sleep). My partner just wished he could have Freyja back as well as having the others which we all wish could happen. . . And his slipper which he just noticed was among the treasures on my desk.

So what has happened since I last posted. Well ever so much as a matter of fact and as I got my old camera (which refuses to acknowledge it is not July) out of storage I have been able to document some of it in photos.

Now where to begin. . .

Akiko got a wonderful Tinkerbell hammock all the way from America with the help of our friend Dru (whose blog you can find here:  http://illustratedrat.blogspot.com/ ) . Dru is very much into Rats and when she put up a link to a rat rescue I believe it was that made cute hammocks for rats I just knew Akiko would love one and Dru was kind enough to help us get one to the UK.




Akiko loves her hammock and it is just so very perfect for her! She was quite unsure at first though so we had to put it up so that it rested on a shelf at first and the I slowly moved it higher and now she is always in there, if not sleeping she is rolling around it in just for fun.

Harry and Valla have a new favourite food: baby carrots!
I would not have expected it but yep, they love baby carrots. I am pretty sure it is just because they are really crunchy OR because Audrey and I are always munching them but either way it is very odd to see a fox turn down a chicken wing in favour of a carrot. . .

December 5th was Sprite's second birthday! Unlike Harry and Elspeth's birthday with is really the day we brought them home as Sprite actually has documentation of when her birthday is we can actually celebrate the right day. Much like Harry and Elspeth's birthday all the fur kids got their favourite food, Sprite got to go to pets at home and choose some toys herself (the foxes don't do that bit, I don't think it would go down too well).

We built a spare enclosure which we then moved Sapphire into to help us fault find (we chose her for this job as though she is an amazing escape artist she always comes and tells us she is out). This is the first time we have not put something solid down as the base to prevent escape as in Harry and Elspeth's enclosure we used cement, on Sapphire's we used galvanised wire covered in paving slabs which were covered in bark chips which is great but this time we just used galvanised wire covered in bark. It was all going really well until the third day when she had dug all around the outer edge which made me worry (she had not gotten through the wire) so I brought in some paving slabs and put them where the biggest holes were. I later the same day found out why she had been digging as she dug another hole and then after some rummaging around pulled out a large stone and took it inside the shed and there I see she has a collection of them!

The new enclosure is entirely the work of my partner on the designing front. It has a 9ft x 9ft outside run and an shed measuring 6ft by 8ft which unlike Sapphire's enclosure is not inside but instead the run is attached to the front of it as though the shed was a house and the run the front garden.

Though much smaller then Sapphire's enclosure which has been extended yet further it has many of the features including a dog house in the shed which I think my partner mainly did to amuse me and a platform however we made that too tall and had to buy a bale of hay to be used as a step and according to Sapphire it is also to be used to rub and roll on as it smells very nice (apparently).

Here are a few photos of Sapphire hanging out in there:



Sniffing Audrey's shoes:



Looking beautiful! :



Loving her Dad:



Don't try the above at home with a random fox or your pet fox if they are not accustomed to it. Sapphire has been hugged from an early age. I know it sounds odd to add that but there are really some stupid people about, not that I think any of you are but with the Holidays upon us one to many drinks can make people do some crazy things lol.

Seeing as I love foxes so much it sounds normal for me to have a random extra enclosure for no apparent reason just sitting there waiting to be filled with the next wonderful critter. We actually built this enclosure as there is somewhat of a distemper epidemic sweeping Britain and we were readying for a new member of the Flashman household.

You may remember my partner was not too pleased when I got him to move Sapphire outside. Well since she moved out I have been told daily that she needs a friend and that she is lonely and I have been asked just as often if she can come back inside as she really does not smell now.

Well, though Sapphire actually smells very little now and she does seem to live for when we went out to see her and take her for her walks I just did not wan't to move her back inside.It's not because I am mean which my 7yr old daughter informed me but because we have the heating on so much now she would cook with her winter coat. Long story short I agreed to look for a friend for her.

I looked high and low and was offered a few but then I found one that seemed to really need a knowledgeable home.

I would like you all to meet "Mr Sapphire":



Mr Sapphire is a blue phase Arctic fox just like Sapphire is just he has had a bad start in life.

Mr Sapphire's first owners basically has no idea and fed him on potatoes, no meat to keep down his "foxy smell" and bathed him every day using head and shoulders! (Neither of this would keep a fox from smelling "foxy" might I add.)

His second home did not have him for very long at all.

The day we brought him home we stopped in the kitchen to fix him some dinner before heading into the garden to take him to his enclosure, that was when I took the above photo.

Once he had finished his dinner we wandered outside to the enclosure, went inside, set down his travel cage, opened the door and POOF! there was Sapphire sniffing his nose!

You see little did I know that though we had the night before moved Sapphire to her enclosure that during the day when we were collecting him "someone" (I shall not name names hehe) took her for a walk and put her back in the wrong enclosure! We had not seen her as she was sleeping in the shed.

So anyway there was out great plan of segregating them gone and a gradual introduction gone but thankfully as all of our animals are inoculated against parvo and distemper and regularly de wormed it was not actually too big a deal for them to meet, it was just not how I expected it to go.

In all honestly I could not have expected it to go as well as it did!





After sniffing each others noses and all over each others body they took off together with Sapphire leading the way showing him around his new home, she even showed him that her humans are tame hehe.

As Sapphire is a total foodie I did not expect her to be okay with him licking the bowls but she was fine and showed no aggression at all towards him. They his it off wonderfully.

After about an hour sat with them we retired inside but checked on them regularly. I saw one of the most adorable things I have ever seen on one of the times which was the two of them sitting atop the platform licking each others tongues! I thought it looked very odd at first the two of them "kissing" each other with their tails wagging like mad but at the same time it was so cute to see them both being so happy!

Now though I am not done updating you all I must go as I have the flu and I feel totally, utterly gruesome so I shall bid you all good night and return tomorrow with the rest of my news. My photos are already on my P.C. so even if my camera should vanish I shall be able to continue.

Good night all!

Sapphire's 'house'.

Today started as any other day, I woke up, got out of bed and started my walk to the bathroom however today I noticed something a little odd; There was an Arctic fox who goes by the name of Sapphire sat at my bedroom door, the same fox should have been in her outside enclosure that we built for a week before. 

I was initially quite confused as to how she had magically materialised in my room as the bedroom door and windows were locked yet upon going to wake my partner to inform him that Sapphire was some sort of wizard the muddy paw prints on his side of the bad gave it away. 

"She was cold" he told me when I asked him why exactly he had brought her in "she is too. . . portly to fit in her kennel". After a discussion about how Arctic foxes are from, well, the Arctic and that she would be fine on a chilly Autumn night my partner said that if she has to sleep outside we should get her a house for out there to which I agreed. I had planned to buy her a kennel anyway just the local pet shop had none bigger then the one she was too big to fit into in stock last I visited. 

Once I had fed and watered the foxes and dogs I went out to go to the spa with some friends and decided that I would pick Sapphire up a bigger kennel on the way home. 

About four hours later I returned with what I thought was an amazingly large kennel which I was sure my partner would be so very pleased with. I decided to walk around the side of the house to where Sapphire's outside enclosure is to start putting it together as a surprise for them both. 

When I got to Sapphire's outside enclosure and walked in I was met by a shed! I had no idea what it was doing there but there was a shed in her enclosure which, I believe was shedless when I had left earlier in the day. There was the sound of a power stapler coming from inside so I wandered around to the door of the structure to find out what was going on. "What do you think?" my partner asked with a huge smile on his face "It was the biggest I could fit in the car". I asked him why there was a shed in Sapphire's enclosure to which he replied "It's Sapphire's house, remember you said she could have one". I went to the side of the shed where I had left the box containing the kennel I had bought her and dragged it to the shed door "hun, this is a dog house" I told him. He informed me that Sapphire is NOT in fact a dog and so she did not require a dog house. I asked him where exactly it said that an animal smaller then a dog needed a shed to sleep in and he told me to stop being silly and to come inside the shed. 

I was actually very impressed with the shed, sorry, I mean Sapphire's house. 

The 'fox house' is 6ft by 8 ft so quite large but not too large as her enclosure measures 15ft by 30ft. My partner showed me how he had bought adhesive vinyl floor tiles and had put those down to make it easy to clean and how he had put a doggy door into the shed door so Sapphire could come and go as she pleased but would not get 'cold' , he had stapled mesh to the first 2-3ft of the wall to prevent her from pulling she shed apart and he had stapled an old blanket to the window so that it would remain dark in there for if she wanted to sleep when it was sunny (he loves his little girl). 

All in all I was very impressed with Sapphire's new bedroom but had no idea where to put her new kennel. My partner liked the look of the kennel I had bought and said that there was one thing still missing and that she needed a bed SO we constructed the kennel and put that inside the shed SO Sapphire now has a kennel within a shed to sleep in. 

The only thing still missing was young Sapphire herself who had been relaxing in her old bedroom inside the house while the shed and kennel were erected. 

My partner went to get her while I stuffed her kennel with straw and lavender scented sawdust (I normally use it for my dormice) and some of Audrey's old cloths. 

Upon seeing her new palace Sapphire was quite weary and only actually entered with help as she had no idea how to use the doggy door. I don't blame her there though, it is not normal to head-butt something that looks like a window and have it open hehe. 

After a while she seemed quite fond of her new room and brought her Swiper the fox toy from out on the grass inside and then into the sleeping area. 

I think she is impressed with it even though I clearly put the straw in the wrong place as two seconds after I left the shed she had strewn it EVERYWHERE! 

Here are some photos of her in her 'house':

I think Sapphire is a very happy little girl now.