Village Squire, 1975-11, Page 10They came to a place of sand hills with few houses, the farms
mostly in pasture, some going wild, grown up with hawthorn,
chokecherry and willows. There were swamps between the hills
and marshy areas filled with cattails. They inspected the ground
hog holes on a sandy ridge. The knowledge had come to them
that a den would be needed in the near future.
They talked to each other in muttering chuckles and whimpers.
There were strange clucking cries that are called barks but not
really like a dog's bark. There were all sorts of grunts and moans
that meant something. Translated into human talk it would have
gone something like this
"This should be a good den Rowena, it goes in between these
big stones but it looks like easy digging. We can enlarge it, why
don't we settle here?"
"I don't know Reynard. I like a view and those trees cut if off
completely, and the back door, it comes right out in the open...we
can't have that. We'll just move on I think."
They found a den at last that pleased her. It was an abandoned
ground hog hole, the entrance under a stump in a thicket of thorn
trees. It was near the top of a ridge and the back door or rather
several back doors came out on the other side of the ridge in an
area strewn with boulders.
From the front of the den they could see across a valley to
another ridge. A small spring creek and a scattered swamp was in
the hollow. Later the hollow came to be filled with marigolds and
the slopes covered by daisies and blue chicory. Here
and there were brushy stands of white sweet clover spreading a
heady perfume. Years ago someone had seeded this pasture with
sweet clover hoping for a miracle. It was a place where wild
things grew luxuriantly and tame things faded away.
They cleaned out the den digging industriously. They
completed several new galleries making the turns at sharp right
angles. There was a toilet in a dead end and well back in the hill a
nest, an egg shaped chamber with diameter of about two feet.
The back exits were cleared of rubbish but no dirt was allowed
around them. The holes were masked by clumps of grass or a
confusion of rocks.
They dug a lower gallery for a drain but it was never needed.
On this dry knoll the rain reached only a few inches into the soil.
On the surface the ground was loamy, underneath where all the
construction went on it was dead sand heavy with fine clay and
holding firm over the tunnels. After a few weeks the sandy soil
pulled out in front of the den faded to the color of the rest of the
hillside. Some weeds and grass even grew through it in the
warm wet spring.
Before the den was completed their courtship reached a
climax. The female became playful, sometimes seductive,
sometimes contemptuous, pretending indifference. The play
became more and more intimate, the male trying to take liberties
and being alternately led on and repulsed.
Suddenly one morning the relationship changed. The female
took the intitative and became bold and aggressive. The actions
of the male were reserved, where he had been bold he became
timid. When it became clear that some action was required of
him he sidled away. He ran around in circles with his tongue
hanging out, completely disgusted with himself. He knew not
which way to look, he lay down and tried to ignore the situation
only to be nudged into motion by this forthright creature.
For two days and well into the third day this went on until both
lay down and slept with exhaustion. Suddenly, with time running
out rapidly, they both got up and quite simply they mated. It was
none too soon for female foxes will -mate in only three days of the
year.
Afterwards, the vixen went into hysterics. She leaped and
bounced about in complete abandon. She rushed at the male,
leaped over him and slipped under him. She circled and nipped
his ear, slid around on her belly and packed a whole • .ea r's
exuberance into this one hour of ecstasy.
The male stood stolidly, he allowed himself to be pushed
around in something of a daze. He saw no reason for a
celebration.
Afterwards, they slept for hours and waked to a new
relationship. They were affectionate but not abandoned, an old
married couple now. The male showed every consideration, the
female accepted it graciously not snappily as before.
Now came a time of play and housekeeping. The den was
8, VILLAGE SQUIRE/NOVEMBER 1975
Chdstmas GiFt Headquarters
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