 The worst part was the unexpectedness of it. There was no flurry of activity behind our house that morning. I didn't notice the sound of any saws as I got in my truck to head to work. It was just a day, like any other day. I worked a split shift, and was close enough to work to be able to come home for the couple of hours between shifts. When I pulled up the driveway beside our house that afternoon, I was stunned. The woods that had been behind our house that morning was completely gone. Nothing remained but the small dogwood and tall pine that were actually on our property. By this time the bulldozers were there, knocking down and moving out the trees as chainsaws hummed. They bulldozed every last one of them. This sort of "progress" is plaguing the Triangle. If an empty lot or a woods exist, some developer comes along to build something on it. The wild animals who make their homes in the few wooded areas that are still standing, are being run out every day. Where do they run to? Last year our youngest daughter went outside one evening to take the recycling out. She came back in with an outlandish tale. "I saw a fox Mom, walking right down the middle of the street!" "A fox? Are you sure it was a fox?" I questioned. "It was a fox!" was her impatient, insistent reply. "Ok, it was a fox," I agreed, not really believing it, but wanting to put the matter to rest. She would mention the fox from time to time, particularly when she needed to go outside to get to the basement after the sun had gone down. Our laundry room is in the basement, and there's no getting around going outside to get there. I believed that she thought she had seen a fox, but that it was more likely some other sort of critter. Foxes don't live smack dab in the middle of a town, even if there is a small woods just down the street. Then today, our neighbor came by with the a tale of a fox on our street. Another case of mistaken identity, I thought. "Mom! There is a fox!" my daughters yelped as they ran into the room later this afternoon. "It's right outside!" I grabbed my camera and headed out the back door. Sure enough, there it was, slinking across our neighbor's back yard toward the woods. Once it reached the woods, it was difficult to see. 
The natural camouflage of colors in the fox's coat blended right in
with the blanket of leaves on the ground, the overgrowth of barren bushes and tree branches. I carefully
ventured forth, camera in hand, determined to capture the fox's image for posterity.
Hurricane Fran had felled many trees several years back, so manuervering through the woods
wasn't as easy as it used to be. I ducked under one of the dead giants which had been completely
uprooted, large chunks of red clay still dangling from the roots, left to rot away after the storm.
I glanced to the side just in time to see the small, dog sized
creature break into a run a few feet away from me.I pushed my way back through the thorny brush and up to where my husband and neighbor stood, discussing the pros and cons of having a fox in the neighborhood. I surveyed the woods for a sign of the creature. This time of the year, with no growth on the trees, I was able to spot it again. "There it is!" I said, excited at finding the fox once more. It was across the woods, moving around in an agitated manner. "It's got ahold of something," I noted, seeing it shaking something furiously like a dog with a chew toy. "Probably a squirrel," our neighbor remarked. "More likely one of those chickens from across the street," was my reply. It's kind of funny really, that a man up the street has raised chickens for as long as we've lived here. I always thought it was really odd that here, in town, this guy had chickens and roosters running around in his yard. That may be what attracted the fox to our neighborhood in the first place -- easy pickings. I ventured back into the woods, even though I had lost sight of the small animal. It couldn't have gone too far. I walked carefully along the floor of the forest, taking care not to lose my footing on the uneven ground. I walked up as far I could go before reaching the area where fresh soil had been dumped from the lot across the street that they began clearing out a few weeks ago for the latest development. I then headed back down the same way I had come up, just left of a long ravine that runs down the center of the woods. I stopped and looked around. There it was, sitting as still as a stone just a few yards away from me. I cautiously took a couple of steps toward it, speaking to it in a calm voice, reassuring it that I meant no harm, before opening the lens cover to snap a picture. It didn't budge. In fact, it appeared to be resting with closed eyes. As I attempted to move in closer for a better shot, it took off like a flash of lightening, bolting down the ravine and out of sight in a matter of seconds. The same distance took me a good 5 minutes, as I made my way back to the house. I can't recall ever having seen a real live fox up close, and was still not quite believing my eyes. With more and more building occuring all around us, the man up the street would be wise to build a henhouse. Downtown Carrboro Map| Events| Prices| Restaurants| UniqueOrn Website Development 
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