Hello folks,
I’m really excited: this is my first post on my new blog, which my friends, the “Hoomans” as I call them, have set up for me. Every Saturday there will be a small part of my stories: funny, exciting, interesting. And of course lots of pictures.
Let’s start by introducing myself. My name is actually “Pünktchen” (“Little Spot”), at least that’s what the Hoomans called me. “Pünktchen Copperfield”. For generations, we Copperfields have lived in the southern part of the SI-130 nature reserve in southern Siegerland.
In 2018, my dad came near a house in the forest and it smelled very strange there. It seemed as if there were a lot of foxes there too, and so my dad always came to see if he could spot anyone when he had time. Every night he came by and looked for them, but he didn’t find them. But they had to be there!? At some point, they had even built them a den out of a plastic barrel. And they hadn’t eaten their food either. Where were they all?
Today I know that it was completely different. It was the house of the Hoomans, who had a lot of dogs. And so that the dogs wouldn’t run away, the Hoomans spent a lot of time and money making a fence “escape-proof”, as they called it. And now my dad was sitting in the middle of their garden and they wondered how a fox could get in where no dog could get out.
They checked the fences, nothing was damaged anywhere and dad hadn’t dug anything either. They set up these “wildlife cameras” to watch every inch of the property. It took them over a year to figure out that they would never find out. And when I asked Dad how he did it, he just grinned and yawned.
For the Hoomans, it was something like magic, and from then on they called my dad “Copperfield” – after a famous human magician, plus dad’s red hair, and the name was ready.
At some point my dad appeared outside the fence with another fox – my mom. The Hoomans decided to call the two “Sir and Lady Copperfield”. Every single day since then we Copperfields have visited the Hoomans’ house. Usually just my mom, because dad is often away. But in the fall, when dad is home more often, they visit together.
Later, my brother and I were born. At first, Mom only let us play in the forest. That was really exciting, and the Hoomans always made sure nothing happened to us. Because on every other tree in the forest there were “the friends with the red eyes,” as Mom called them.
Afterwards she took us to the Hoomans’ house. We weren’t too comfortable at first, especially with those dogs. It took quite a while for them to get used to us, but “David” in particular had already become friends with Dad and the two of them had already gone hunting mice together.[A fox was standing on our property and was not put off by the fact that “David” was standing behind the fence and barking at him. David bit through the fence and ran after the fox. On the surveillance videos you can hear an animal squeaking. Then about 30 seconds pass and you can see the two of them wandering along our property side by side. The fox continued to come by every day after that. However, for various reasons we will not publish the videos]
Today it’s just me, my brother has moved away, and so have my parents. But I’ve found a new friend. Let’s see how things go with him. I’ve already been to the Hoomans with him, but he’s not quite warming up to the “red-eyed friends” yet. He’s not comfortable with them. He’s just young and still a bit shy, but he’ll get better.
Hey, so that was my first post. Pretty exhausting and unusual for such a little fox girl. I think I’ll lie down for a bit. I hope we’ll see each other again next week. I’d be delighted.
Bye, your “Coppy”