Autumn Days & The Fox

I'm in love with my city right now. We are enjoying one of the most gorgeous Autumns I can remember in years. Our last few days have been sunny and warm, with only a bit of grey to darken the skies. I've been trying to spend as much time outside as possible, since I'm usually in the shop during the prettiest parts of the day.

On Sunday evening, I took Gretchen out to our local zoo and on our way, we drove beside the river (the scenic route, if you will) and midway through the trip, Gretchen asked if I would stop the car so we could look at the beautiful trees. She's got an eye for nature, that one, and it pleases me so. I love that she'll stop and admire leaves, flowers, bugs, trees, puddles... during our walk along the zoo path we took in all of the Autumn colours, out in full force in our town. 

We also had an encounter with a fox!

This fox did not belong to the zoo, but as I learned from a security guard later, just likes to hang around. He walked in front of Gretchen and myself, no more than 10 feet away, then made his way down the path. He stayed in sight a long time, and eventually disappeared past the parking lot. At one point he ducked under the gate to the turkey and Sika deer enclosure, which had me concerned for a moment, but the reaction of the turkeys was so comical, I knew they'd be alright. If you've ever witnesses a rafter of turkeys about to gang up on one fox, you'd giggle a bit too. They all stood with their necks stretched high, huddled in a circle, making all sorts of gobble sounds. (But don't worry, they were unscathed and the fox trotted back out to continue on his merry way.)

It was wonderful to be that close to the fuzzy little guy, who didn't have a care in the world. I can only imagine he know the zoo is full of food to scavenge and so he sticks around. The security guard said he follows him about on his rounds some nights, and hasn't cared to bother anyone. I think he's sweet, and Gretchen was thrilled to see him so close. 

She's just like me at that age, so in love with animals. I mentioned before that she had a blast feeding the goats at the pumpkin patch Thanksgiving weekend, so of course when she spotted the goats at our zoo, she ran right over and tried to hand them fist fulls of leaves -- which they happily accepted. Sure, you're not supposed to feed the animals at the zoo, but since their pen was full of them, I wasn't especially concerned. One particular goat became her little pal by the end of our visit. 

Hope you're all having a beautiful day, mes amis.