"Lock the gardens lock the gates ,lock the back or front doors". No, this comment is not concerning a burglar but rather a poor innocent fox, or a beastly wild animal depending on your take. When covid lockdown began last March, spurred on by the constant "we're all in this together", I decided to join an app which uses your postcode to give neighbours a platform to connect. I was soon disheartened to see that the app was just about people complaining over parking and rubbish, so except for my occasional outrage at people having rats for pets or feeding mice, I pretty much ignored the notifications until the the epic fox debacle.
Last Wednesday we had an unexpected spot of sunshine and double digit temperatures here in London. So of course we all took long walks in the park, donned our lighter spring jackets and took numerous pictures basking in the sunshine for social media.
One of my neighbours decided that her pet rabbit also needed his dose of vitamin D, and let him out in the garden to play. Little did she know that the Big Bad Fox was on the prowl. In a few fleeting seconds he jumped over her "6 ft fence" into her yard and made off with poor Mr. Rabbit.
Please forgive me dear reader for telling this story as a nursery tale. I'm currently on mat leave and spend my days chatting about Mr Tortoise and Mrs Bear, and now apparently Mx Potato Head.
Furious, my neighbour did what any of us would do, she immediately took to the app to vent her rage. #firstworldproblems. The resulting 200 responses and counting has been marvellous. Who needs the BBC and the Guardian app? I now sit with my morning cup of coffee and scroll through the ensuing fox debate daily. It's amazing how much I've learnt. Did you know :
People feed foxes
People shouldn't feed them as it damages their predatory skills and makes them fearless of humans
Foxes are taking over London and should be culled
We need foxes to keep rat and mice populations in check
But they also kill beautiful song birds
Cats kill more birds than foxes should we cull them too
But now we can't leave our babies in the garden to play
If you're leaving your baby in the garden you're unfit to be a parent and social services need to be called
They carry rabies
According to the NHS rabies are mostly found in bats in England
They are vermin
They were here before us
Someone just got called a Karen and in my head I thought "oh no she didn't just go there!" As we say in Trinidad, "it never too early for bachannal!
