chrishansenhome

Living as we do in nearly the centre of London, a brisk walk away from everything worth seeing, we weren't expecting to be hosting any wildlife bigger than our squirrel.

Last week an urban fox took up residence in our rather small back garden. I'd post a picture but one fox looks around the same as another.

I really don't want a fox living there: it stays under a bush during the heat of the day, and then when the sun is low moves out into the middle of the yard. Foxes don't carry rabies here (a woman died of rabies yesterday in the UK, but she had been bitten by a dog while she was visiting India a month or so ago) but they can bite if cornered. I felt concerned about leaving our back door open, so it's a bit hot in the house.

The Acting Area Dean and I met last night for another reason, and his advice was to spread curry powder around where it had been lying. I had some lying around, so spread it out there early today. No sign of the fox all day.

I have called the landlord for advice. The next door neighbours have the makings of a conservatory under a tarp along the back wall and I think that the fox lives there when it's not sunning itself in our garden. The landlord may fix the fence between my back garden and theirs so that the fox will have to jump over it rather than squeeze through the gap at the back. I can deal with that.

I shall go to Brick Lane and buy a bag of very spicy curry powder and spread more around, perhaps tomorrow. I don't want it shot or poisoned—if I did HWMBO would probably divorce me. I just want it to go elsewhere.

At around 6:30 am, I heard what sounded like a dogfight in the back garden. I turned over and said to HWMBO: "I'll bet there are foxes out there." He said he didn't think so.

When I came downstairs at 7:15 to make breakfast, there were indeed two foxes in the back garden. They were no longer fighting, but one was curled up in front of our back door and the other one was halfway up the garden. That one has retreated under a tarpaulin in the next garden, but the first one is still curled up in front of the back door, seemingly asleep.

I have some pictures, but they will have to wait until I can make them smaller to fit onto a regular blog page. The gas fitter came to examine the boiler, and he had to go into the back garden to check on the flue. I was a bit nervous that the fox would either attack him or run into the house, which would be a disaster. Luckily, when he opened the back door the fox ran away. It has now come back, though.

Fox in the back garden