Foxheimers

Went to bed around midnight, lay there for five hours unable to sleep, and at 5.02 am I got up. Stars still sequinned the sky and a lone jet stream trailed past Venus in the East. Gradually, as the sky lightened and developed morning colours, palest blue, peach, robins started tick-tick-ticking, then the warning 'chook' of the blackbirds. A large hedgehog trotted past me, acros the lawn and into the bushes. I was sitting outside with a cup of tea and flinched as a big bat flittered and swooped just over my head, followed a few minutes later by another smaller one, probably a pipistrelle.

By now my feet were cold - I was in dressing gown and slippers - and I decided to take my tea back to bed. However, we have a cat flea invasion and no sooner did I get back to my bedroom than I got nibbled. I returned to the kitchen for the flea spray and encountered the mangy fox, who was staggering around the deck. It fell off the edge twice, stumbled onto the pond netting, went round in circles, stuck a front paw in Flad's drinking trough (an old plastic tool box) and generally looked in a very bad way.

Thinking it was about to flake out in front of my eyes, I went upstairs and woke Mr G - who, it transpired, didn't need waking because he had been awake since 4 am (though he went to bed at ten so at least he got a decent few hours' sleep). It's now 7.15 and we have spent the whole time watching the fox's erratic behaviour. I threw some bread out. It picked it up, carried round the side of the house and dropped it there, came back and stared at us. I put out some cat food. It sniffed at it, went away, came back and ate some, then walked in aimless circles. I put out the bird's bread, having torn it into small chunks, and it decided to eat that. But over and over it would stand there staring at us, almost as if it wanted us to help it.

I wondered about ringing he RSPCA, but if it hadn't actually collapsed, there wouldn't be anything they could do. I don't think the poor thing is long for this world, though. It's definitely lost the plot. Foxheimers, perhaps? It's very distressing to watch. At least it isn't Olive. It doesn't have her habits and its tail is longer. I think it could be Kinky, Olive's sister. Wonder if Olive is OK? I'd like to think of her somewhere across the farm fields, rearing a litter of cheeky, curious cubs just like her.