Among the greens and oranges, golds and crimsons outside my kitchen window right now, today I saw a different display of color. I saw a red fox snag an albino squirrel. Honest to God. I’m not making this up.
Christian was the first to spot the all-white squirrel yesterday, in the front yard. This morning the squirrel was in the back yard, cavorting with his ordinary gray friends.
I reached for my camera to take a photo, and suddenly a red fox was in the grass nearby. He was watching the squirrels, but not for long. In a flash he darted right into the middle of it, was he fast. Nothing outruns squirrels I thought, just ask my german shepherd who’s been trying to get one for eight years, but the fox was faster than anything I’ve seen.
The squirrels scattered, the white one tried to run up the tree, but the fox got just enough of it to pull it back down. Though it scrambled away momentarily, the fox would have none of it. He was on that little white squirrel like a lightning strike. In a split second the squirrel was in it’s mouth and the fox galloped quickly into the woods and disappeared.
The entire drama took no more than about 5 seconds. The rare white squirrel was running around my wildlife paradise of a yard one moment, and in the grip of the fox’s razor teeth the next. Breakfast.
There is much that happens within the city limits that you don’t hear about from the Chamber of Commerce, and this crazy scene was one of them. I have deer, I have birds of all color and song just two miles from the center of downtown and today the most unlikely combination; a bright orange fox with a pure white squirrel in its mouth.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
The poor little squirrel! In my Cortland neighborhood just outside of the city we have seen a fox or two. I just hope I never run into a little black bear!
Yes Denise, I second that.
I took a photo this morning (and posted it on Facebook) of the almost-white squirrel that’s been hanging around in my Baldwinsville backyard for about 2 weeks. I suspect some of my FB friends thought I was hallucinating!! One of them posted a link to your blog, which is how I ended up here :O)
Suzanne
A former journalist for The Post-Standard
Hello Suzanne, you have a white squirrel too! Please tell your friend that you and I are not crazy, well, at least not in the way we see white squirrels.
Thanks for the post. Maureen
I am soooo jealous! I live for sightings like this. I will keep my eyes extra peeled for white squirrels. I just hope your Red fox doesn’t eat them all!
Yes, Linda, only you wouldn’t be jealous if you saw the snatch. I was upset for about 20 minutes aferward. I don’t have much stomach for that element of nature.