Summer coats are SO in this season!

Harry and Elspeth have been shedding so much over the past month or so, I fear they will vanish entirely!

I thought I should post some pics of them in their new coats. Harry has shed the most or more he lets me brush him more then Elspeth does.

Harry

Winter:

Summer:

He is in the Kitty carrier which he has decided to turn into a bed with a blanket and he is trying to pull a pillow in.

Elspeth

Winter:

Summer:

Still sticking her tongue out at the camera, some things never change!

Anyway it's duck jerkey time so TTFN!

Volcanoes and mice, who would have thunk it?!

On April 17th I was meant to leave for Alberta Canada but due to this Volcano in Iceland that did not happen, the strange thing is I think Harry knew it was not going to happen as well...

The night before when I put him and Elspeth to bed I was talking to them (as I do, call me mad) and Harry walked to the crate door and took my hand in his mouth which was a bit odd and then he put it on the floor or his crate and proceeded to bury it in the pine litter...

It was all very odd. He used one of his paws as a guide of where to nose the litter up to which he never does with his toys...He then peed on the litter he piled on my hand, that I did not like but it was also odd as he uses his litter tray 99% of the time (the other 1% is when he misses as Elspeth is in there or I am cleaning it out.). After he did that I took my hand out of the pile and left the room to wash my hands. Harry was not happy with this, the whole time I was out of the room he gekkered for me which was odd as I always put him to bed at the same time and he knows that is bed time.

I probably should not have but I went back in to see him and quite him down. He was being really sweet which he is more and more the more time I have him, he let me pet him and scratch him behind the ears, even brush him. I then gave him and the sleeping Elspeth a piece of duck jerky (home made) and went off to bed.

That night my partner said he heard nibbling under the bed, I thought he was hearing things so rolled over and went to sleep. I was then woken up by him turning on the light and saying that there was something under the bed. He put down one of Harry and Elspeth's treats and waited with the lights out and the treat vanished!

He then decided he was going to pull out the wicker drawers from under our bed to find this 'something' and as he did so I saw something run past the foot of the bed out the corner of my eye! It was the size of a mouse.

I am a bit soft when it comes to mice, I really do like them and I could not bare to put down a humane trap only to come back from Canada (at this point the plane was still meant to fly) and find a mouse starved to death inside it so I was going to leave it until I came home.

Well at 4am I went to check to see if the plane was going to fly and it said the dreaded word 'CANCELLED'...Lovely....

The next day I talked to someone of the exotic keepers forum about what to do about this mouse, it seems that wild mice are nowhere as nice as fancy mice and can really cause some damage to your house and what not so it is best to catch them ASAP so I put down the humane trap filled with stuff I know my African Pygmy dormice like.

On the morning of the 19th I was getting ready and Harry and Elspeth were out and about as normal. I left them loose when I went to brush my teeth. Harry ran down stairs to his bedtime crate faster then I have ever seen him run and started digging in there.

I put him and Elspeth in their crate so I could go out and sort out a refund with the travel agent.

Upon my return home Elspeth trotted out of the crate like normal and out of the room looking for my partner but Harry was sat at the back of the crate looking shifty. I climbed into the crate to see what he had. He turnt round, rummaged in the kitty litter and emerged with a dead mouse in his mouth and a smile on his face.

I am quite honoured that he showed me as normally if he hides something he will not show anyone but that day he wanted to show everyone how he had slain the evil mouse who was intruding in Mummy and Daddy's room starting with me.

Today is the 27th and I only yesterday managed to get Harry to allow me to take his mouse off him. I thought it was quite cute how he was so proud of it he did not even eat it...Bit icky as well though.

Bed time crate

On April 17th I am going away to Canada for a family wedding at Lake Louise in Alberta but guess who can't come? Yep Harry and Elspeth so they are going to be babysat by my Dad. Last nigth my partner and I moved their sleeping crate into our spare room so they could get accustomed to not having us with them 24/7 and sleeping in a different room.

It was so hard to collapse and carry their Great Dane sized crate to the spare room, especially as Harry and Elspeth wanted to know where their bedroom was going. I decided as I was putting it up from scratch that as so many people have asked what exactly is in their bed time crate I may as well show you so here we go!

Well as already stated this crate is made for Great Danes, I shall get the measurements when I find a tape or yard stick.

Their bed is made from a foam pillow, two metal bars and a pillow case.

I have bent the bars so that they hook onto either side of the crate but. Before hooking it up I get a pillow case and cut the corners off to thread the bars through and then I stuff the pillow in. This creates a sort of hammock for Harry and Elspeth as the pillow hangs between the two bars. The bars and the foam pillow give the bed integrity and thus make it easier for them to get onto it.

(Pillow hammock prior to being put up)

(Pillow hammock in place)

Harry and Elspeth also have a small kitty carrier with no door on it to sleep in. They both enjoy playing hide and seek in it and it also gives them another way to get into their hammock and a sort of cave to hang out in. (I say hand out as neither of them sleep in it very often.) I did originally have the crate just placed in there but have started to use cable ties to hold it in place and onto the bars as during play Harry would often spin it whilst Elspeth was inside leaving the door facing the bars of the crate and Elspeth in a foul mood. I filled the kitty carrier with some straw last night for a change from their blankets only to this morning find Harry eating it which made him sick (literally) so I have removed it now.

Annother new addition is that I have put skirting board all around the inside of the crate and thus made it possible to cover the floor in wood litter. I did this as Elspeth likes to dig and even though I have a lovely big tractor tyre filled with sand in their outside enclosure she will not go into said enclosure to use it and that would make far to much mess inside so I decided this would be the answer. The two of them still use a litter tray to toilet in but with different litter inside so they know the difference and Elspeth can dig until her hearts content.

Lastly is their food dishes as they have their evening meal in their crate, litter tray and their toys of which the current fave is rubber treat dispensing ball. I am sure I forgot something...Oh yes two beautiful foxes!

On and just as I thought this was really funny this is how my partners T-shirt looks after 15mins of petting Elspeth:

(Bye bye blonde!)

TTFN!

Extreme makeover

(Elspeth left Harry right)

Today I am writing to you all from within a cloud of fox fur. Do not worry , no one is hurt but I do seem to be gaining at least two more foxes in fur that is coming off Harry and Elspeth.


The two of them are currently shedding allot as they are undergoing a total colour transformation from their fluffy winter coat of blond and white to a light weight summer coat of red and orange.

Unlike a dog however they are not shedding their undercoat but they seem to be loosing their top layer of fur which I found to be quite odd. Everywhere that they have a large clump of fur that looks ready to fall off when I brush it out or they groom it out there is this vibrant red.

(The first patch of orange on Harry's back)

The texture of this coat is very unlike any other summer coat I have felt on an animal, it feels quite woolly which again I would not have expected.

The two of them look quite odd at the moment as they have random long and short clumps of fur and patched of red and orange.

I took a couple of photos of them cuddling up in bed last night as I think it looks so very cute, it is often hard to tell where Harry ends and Elspeth begins.

(Elspeth and the back of Harry's head)

Good night!

Red foxes!

Sorry I have not written in a while, I have been very ill with a throat infection.
It has been a very interesting experience which is one thing I never expected being in to much pain to eat or drink to be.

Harry has truly shown that he cares for me, once and for all which has really made my fortnight. He will not leave me alone for love nor money, he chooses to look after me over going to play with Sprite and Elspeth which is not something I expected to happen for one second.

Harry is normally not at all into hugging yet since I have been ill whenever I feel at my very worst he will come and sit with me, not on my lap or anything, just with me so he can keep an eye on me. When I sit anywhere he has been licking my feet and sort of stroking them with his little nose. This is such odd behaviour for a fox. Normally if they go near my feet they play fight them, not clean them.

He also has been sleeping in his crate on the raised bed I made him which is not out of the ordinary but he has insisted in keeping one of his paws on the bed and his nose through the bars on my foot. (Last night after watching Paranormal Activity randomly getting a hairy paw on my foot in the dead of the night was a tad nerve racking!)

A few nights ago my partner and I fell to sleep while watching TV before putting the foxes to bed and I woke up to the oddest thing; Harry laying between us licking up my nose, as in inside my nostrils! Before I opened my eyes I had no idea what it was and when I opened them I was just very confused. Elspeth seems to have slept in her crate all night even though the door was open.

Both foxes also had not broken, stolen or eaten anything random in my room which made me happy. If I was well I know they would have so it would seem these sneaky, cunning and smart creatures are also sweet and caring. It really warmed my heart.

Last Sunday myself and my partner took our 6 year old daughter and her best friend out to see a play. I was very much worse for wear at 9am while we were in our car on the way to Birmingham and I was in a bit of a daze looking out the window. We passed field after field and then I saw him; a beautiful red fox. He was sitting in the middle of the field surrounded by fog. He looked up at the sky when we were about level with him and then off he walked. He looked so pretty and it made me wonder, like I always do when I see them, why on earth anyone would shoot these marvellous creatures?

Today I we were going to Buckingham but I had to get a coffee first so we went Via Milton Keynes to go to Starbucks and in the city centre no less there was another red fox, in the middle of the day!!! I was amazed. Counting the one I saw on the Sunday I had only ever seen two in the flesh and now I had seen three, two in one week!!!

He was about to cross a busy road and we slowed down and upon seeing the car he turned round and headed away from the road. My partner said that we saved him and maybe we did as I know some people would speed up to hit the poor little guy.


Sadly no new photos of the foxes today as since the throat infection I have been really down in the dumps but I will get some for next time, hope you can forgive me.


TTFN!

Peek -a-boo!

Gosh have I been busy lately!

Before we got Sprite we thought that we would try clicker training as it seemed really effective. I now have one clicker upstairs and one downstairs along with a bag of treats in either place. (I always forget where I leave things I need.)

The night before we collected Sprite I thought I would try out the clicker on Harry and Elspeth. The first step is showing them that 'click' meant treat incoming so they adored their first 15 minuet session as I did as the book told me and just clicked the clicker and gave them each a treat. After they clearly understood that I started tried 'target'. I had one problem with this and that was that I had no stick with an obvious place to poke with their noses so I looked all over the house and all I could find that would work was one of my daughters drum sticks so that was the stick sorted. Then we had to find something to put on the end to make them want to poke it.

In the fridge we had stinky cheese of some sort but I did not want to deal with their stomach upset the next day and peanut butter! So peanut butter it was to be.

I proceeded into my office which is the quietest room as it has sound proofing. (I have a 5yr old with a drum kit, trust me the sound proofing was needed hehe.)

Harry was first. He smelt the peanut butter and that was it, that stick was to be his!

I had no sooner lowered the stick and 'woosh!' it, and Harry were gone off to the far corner of my office and under my desk! I went to retrieve the stick. Harry looked at me like I had done something horrid and hurtful when I pulled it out of his paws but none the less he followed me back to the sofa.

Harry sat down and looked at me so very confused as to why I had offered him a treat and then taken it away again.

I firmly held the stick this time and held it out, pointed to the end and said 'target'.

Harry sniffed the stick and then went up to it with his mouth open ready to take it again. I quickly tapped his nose with the end, clicked the clicker and told him 'good target!' and gave him a treat.

He then spat the treat out, licked his nose and headed for the stick again. This time when I tapped it on his nose with hopes he would get the idea he was ready for it. The second it came near him he pounced on it and licked the stick.

At the same time my partner had decided this clicker thing can't be so hard and went about showing Elspeth what she should do. He taught her somehow in little to no time that 'crate' means go in your crate!

Harry and I decided to take a break and went to see Elspeth doing her amazing new trick.

I am astounded how well my partner and Elspeth managed to accomplish this. Normally to get them to go in their crate they have to know it's bedtime or a meal time but now just the word 'crate' when said by my partner and aimed at Elspeth and off she trots, happy as Larry!

Harry seems to need a class mate to learn with.

Now that we have Sprite Harry will happily learn with her. I think it helps that as she is a dog she is easier to train and Harry has been learning by example. The two of them have become very good friends.

Here is the two of them playing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAwPaARrfHk

Well good night!

Sprite!

On Monday the 1st of March a new member joined our family, a Papillon puppy by the name of Sprite.


Sprite is a mothers day gift for me from my 5 year old daughter and my partner. She is wonderful!

Harry and Elspeth are quite taken with her. As she is very small they seem to understand that she is a baby and so they are both very sweet to her. Harry likes to lick her face. I am not totally sure if he is kissing her or grooming her but they both seem to enjoy the activity.

Elspeth likes to talk to her which is odd to see as obviously puppies do not gekker....

The one thing that has been a problem is that when Sprite 'talks' she sounds like a squeaky toy which is the one sound that both Harry and Elspeth are terrified of. I think they are getting accustomed to her slowly.

I have not yet allowed them to see one another when 'loose' all meetings have been with the foxes in their sleeping crate or the puppy in her travel crate but I will soon allow them to run freely around the house together.

I am really impressed with Harry and Elspeth's behaviour around Sprite as after my mothers dog tried to attack before I thought that they might despise her but that has thankfully not been the case. In fact Harry and Elspeth seem to have made her an honorary fox as with all the grooming of her Harry has done she now smells like them and my mothers dog had no idea what to make of her! She also cries when she cannot see her beloved foxes hehe. Really happy with their relationship so far.

I made a video of Sprite's trip home and shall film her with the foxes when I have the chance. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mkEdUUODgo

TTFN!