05 April 2013

Death and foxes

Some weeks, you just want to see the back of. This was definitely one of those weeks. On Saturday three of the hens were killed by a fox. A fourth died of her injuries on Sunday. On Wednesday the dog discovered something in the corner of the big barn and started barking furiously at it.

This was what he'd found:


Hardly recognisable as such, but another fox, this one badly affected by mange. The next day it, too, had died. Today I picked up its body on a shovel and took it into the woods.

I know death is a part of life and all that, but this week I feel as though I have been dealing with nothing but death.

A bit of light relief then, to discover that a new book from one of my favourite authors had come into the library. I collected it today:


I'm obviously not going to be allowed to forget this week's foxes as quickly as I'd hoped...

P.S. The book was very good. But really should have been called Death after Death, I think. And foxes did feature rather a lot. Representative sentence (p.141): "She hadn't expected to die like a fox frozen in its den."

2 comments:

Lucy Corrander Now in Halifax! said...

Sounds a horrid week. May Kate Atkinson take you beyond it.

Lisa from Iroquois said...

I hope the book was good. The image of that little fox broke my heart. Yeah, I know, they used to kill our chickens too ... but can you imagine being so unwell and sore and achey that you curled up to die in such an unsafe place as a human barn?