The Fox Family Under the Shed

In May, a fox dug a den under the shed at the back of our yard. A week later, four tiny kits came tumbling out into the sunlight.

My kids and I watched from the kitchen window every morning and evening for the rest of the summer. We named them: Copper, Sprout, Pickle and Big Ears. We kept a journal of their behavior. They chased each other in circles, pounced on grasshoppers and wrestled in the flower bed.

The mother fox was always nearby, watching. Sometimes she would lie in a patch of sun with her eyes half closed while the kits climbed on her back.

My son drew a picture of them every day. My daughter learned that foxes eat beetles, berries and mice, and told everyone she met. By September, the kits were almost as big as their mother, and then one day, they were gone. My kids were sad for a day. Then my daughter said, "They grew up." She hung all thirty of her brother's drawings in the hallway.