My friend has this weird skill. He can doze off any time, any place. In a car, on a train, even at the dinner table while my dad is telling an army story. Turns out, this talent isn’t exclusive to people.
Recently, Sara Ryan’s parents noticed a fox napping on a tree stump in front of their house. The couple have been social-distancing and don’t have pets, so a sight like this really made their day. Ryan’s dad was the first to spot the critter resting on the remains of a dead tree the city had removed last year, and he’s been sending his daughter updates ever since.
“My parents had seen her in the yard several times this winter,” Sara told Bored Panda. “In fact, she found one of my sister’s dog’s toys in the yard and was moving it around in the snow a few nights. The tree got cut down in late October, but they never saw her up there until the day I posted the picture. They were really surprised to see her in the daylight, let alone sleeping on top of the stump.”
Nowadays, if the fox reveals herself, she’s mostly sleeping. “Foxes are nocturnal. She leaves at night to hunt,” Sara added. “My parents did see her running down the main street by their house, but since everyone is indoors, for the most part, she wasn’t in any danger from cars. Otherwise, she hangs out on the stump when it’s sunny – sometimes she’s there and sometimes she’s not!”
Usually, Sara’s parents try to stay out of the fox’s way. But they still run into each other! “Once, when my dad was bringing in groceries, she popped her head up from her nap and then went about napping. I think she’s relatively familiar with them now and isn’t scared by them being her neighbors!”
Sara knows how well foxes can climb trees and said there’s a garage nearby that the fox might get onto the stump from, but according to the Humane Society Wildlife Land Trust, a non-profit that protects wildlife by permanently preserving and connecting habitat, she might not even need it.