Thursday, May 24, 2012
My old girl Olivia
Olivia has been coming around our house, almost daily, for the past ~3 years now. She's been in our house in fact. Last year I was sitting at my computer with the front door open and she boldly walked in. She gave me a smug look and stole a shoe. I followed her out and she dropped the shoe, sat down and looked at me like 'what do you think?' When Olivia had a litter of pups last year she brought them to our house. Me and the boys stood on the deck and watched as 4 pups played in my back yard. Olivia sat just a few feet from me and looked at me like a proud mamma showing off her kids. I've walked out to my shed with Olivia at my heel and as I worked on my bike (my shed is my bike shop) she sat at the door and watched me work. I don't know what the life expectancy is of a wild fox, but I call Olivia my 'old girl'. She's a sweetheart. We have an entire wall of family photos in our house, our best photos of our kids. And there in the middle is my old girl Olivia. She came around today and walked up and sniffed my fingers... just made me think how much I truly enjoy seeing her. I don't want to take her for granted. I don't know how long she'll be around, and I doubt she'll read this blog post (ha) but she's made my life better.
beautiful
ReplyDeleteThat is f'ing awesome!
ReplyDeleteLove it.
ReplyDeleteI'm not real big on human/wildlife "friendships" but I suppose it's inevitable in certain settings and I feel ok with this setting. Pretty cool.
ReplyDeleteShe's a beauty!
ReplyDeleteThat is too cool!
ReplyDeleteYour best post yet....love it. How nice to have a wild animal choose to make friends with "you"! Very rare indeed...
ReplyDeleteThat is tremendous.
ReplyDeleteAwesome. Your kids will always remember Olivia. Most kids today would never have such an experience.
ReplyDeleteThe two of you are clearly connected:)
ReplyDeleteMike- I'll be out working on my bike in the shed and she'll just come and sit at the door. Keeping me company.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing
ReplyDeleteGreat photos. What a beautiful animal and a special relationship.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy it when wild animals start to relax around me, or I even when I get to know a particular individual. I think that's even happened to me with a bird (barn swallow).
There's a coyote that I see on trail runs, that I wish could relax and realize I mean no harm, but it's just not going to happen.
"...I really enjoy it when wild animals start to relax around me..."
ReplyDeleteWild animals don't relax around humans. If you get them to relax, then they are not wild animals anymore.
I am still trying to get Lucho to relax around me so I think he might still be a wild animal.
ReplyDeleteMore seriously ... you wrote this in a way with a combo of pix that was particularly touching.
How do your cats deal with the fox?
Ha! Don't try to change me man...
ReplyDeleteThe cats and Olivia get along just fine. I've seen my cat lounging on the deck half asleep and Olivia will walk right by and not even glance at the cat. Flynn though is a big old tomcat that probably weighs the same as Olivia. And when we first moved up here Flynn would chase Olivia away. I think fox are are probably smart enough to not want to fight for a meal and Flynn would be too much to handle.
LOVE Oliva! She is the BOMB. I can remember you posting about her when she first came around back then. Three years feels like a blink... Have fun at training camp! Nate is very psyched. :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks TGP! Ya, the time has gone by.
ReplyDeleteAsk Nate how psyched he is after 3 days at high altitude running up the Powerline :) I'm ready for some foul language directed towards me. But ya, it's going to be awesome!
TAKE PICTURES OF THE SUFFERING PLEEEZE!!! :-)
ReplyDeleteOh hell ya!
ReplyDeleteThat is so cool! It is like you have a pet fox. Who wouldn't want a pet fox. I sure wood. So cool!
ReplyDelete