A note about the fox...
Many of my site visitors are already aware
that I have many, many, many pets. I've photographed them,
and discussed them, and even included them in my 'apartment tour',
so by now I think that anyone visiting my site probably knows them
fairly well. In fact, I believe the only people that aren't
familiar with my pets would be the visitors who head straight for
the 'boobie' photos, and those people aren't going to be reading
this journal entry anyhow, heh. Anyway, as the owner of so many
pets (eight cats, four fish, two birds, three chinchillas, and a
fox, in case you've lost track or were too busy looking at boobie
photos)... anyway, as the owner of so many pets, I am
constantly trying to educate myself about them better so that I can
provide them with more suitable care. So, to make the long
beginning of a long story short (it's okay, I was done with the
beginning anyway), I spent a day researching fennec foxes. After
much googling and more than a few yahoos, I finally
found a website with some scientific, factual information and did
what I could to apply that same information to my own fennec fox,
Degama (she came to me with this name, so I can't provide a
translation).
Fennec foxes are apparently from the class 'Mammalia',
the order 'Carnivora', the family 'Canidae', and the genus and
species 'Vulpes (Fennecus) zerda'. Being of the canidae family,
fennecs happen to be the smallest of all wild canines. Degama
herself is only three and a half pounds, which made an incident the
other week where she managed to fit my friend's entire big toe in
her mouth just that much more remarkable. What was yet even more
remarkable than that was the fact that Gary waved his toe in her
general vicinity after I warned him several times that she was an
evil and vicious biting machine. Pfft. I now keep her separated
from the viewing public with a baby gate placed strategically in my
bedroom doorway, although none of my friends with children are aware
of this (they are still under the impression that their children
can't possibly visit due to the risk of cranky fox bitings).
The natural range of a fennec fox in the wild
consists of Northern Africa, across the Sahara, the Sinai Peninsula
and also Arabia. Fennecs are desert animals, burrowing in the sand
with such ease (and speed) that the native desert people used to
believe that they had a magical ability to become invisible. The
domestic range of a fennec fox living in my apartment, on the other
hand, consists of my bedroom closet, under the bed, the light (and
easily stained) portions of my living room area rug, and a small
heating pad near the window. Have no doubt, however, that her
native skills are going to waste... she burrows into the sandy
environment of the litter box at least three or four times a day,
especially when it hasn't been cleaned yet.
Degama after a bath...
In the wild, a fennec fox will eat large
insects like beetles and locusts, small rodents, lizards and
occasionally birds. They also sometimes eat some plant material,
when available, like berries and succulent leaves. In a zoo or
sanctuary environment, a fennec fox will eat a commercially prepared
canine diet, plus the odd freshly killed mice or chicks (and some
fruit). In the Julia's apartment environment, amazingly
enough, a very specific (and troublesome) fennec fox will not
hesitate to completely shun the carefully prepared canine diet
(which was shipped at great expense in quantities of no less than
fifty pounds from very far away) and eat only domestic dog food
(although I've managed to use a very high quality, well-balanced
brand). Luckily, I've also had much success with small quantities
of multi-grain breads and of course a healthy amount of fresh fruits
and vegetables.
I've heard that pets will sometimes take after
their owners, and apparently Degama knows what she should not eat
(in much the same way that I know I should not eat a chicken garlic
pizza with creamy ranch sauce, you know?). Within a week of her
arrival here she had racked up over a thousand dollars in veterinary
bills because she opened a latched cupboard and a closed container
in order to eat nearly two cups of raisins (grapes and raisins are
toxic to dogs and can cause both kidney and liver failure over long
term use). I tell the chinchillas every night that Degama is the
reason raisins are no longer kept in the house, but I'm pretty sure
they still blame me. Not only that, but I am forced to vigorously
guard any caffeinated beverage that I happen to be drinking... in
the past, Degama has vaulted across tables and viciously attacked
innocent armchairs in an effort to reach a near empty can of sugar
free Red Bull. And just this evening, even, she waited until
exactly two seconds after I answered the telephone to hunt and kill
the remnants of my strawberry cheesecake ice cream (and it
was Haagen Dazs... sigh!).
Back to the research... everything I found on
the web indicated not only that fennecs frequently cache their food
for future use, but also that they will remember each individual
cache site exactly. Well, that may be the case, but it didn't say
anything about them ever going back to that cache site and actually
eating the food that they've stored. I probably wouldn't
even wonder at such a statement, except for the fact that I can't
put my foot in a pair of shoes without stepping on a dried up green
bean or bread crumb. I also find the shriveled remnants of her
dinner in my bed, on my keyboard, behind my comic books, and in my
underpants drawer. On the plus side, at least her diet doesn't
include dead mice or birds, yes?
Speaking of underpants, Degama has a lovely
habit of pulling my underpants out of the dirty laundry hamper,
waving them in the air, shrieking like a banshee, and streaking
through the apartment with them. As if that weren't scandalous
enough, she takes every opportunity (after her big display, of
course) of presenting said underpants to any houseguest I might have
at the moment. Very classy. Certainly a conversation
starter, and definitely useful when I need a change of subject
(although I could use a nice topic for the appalling silence that
occurs immediately after such an event).
Degama and her "I promise I
won't bite you!" face...
One of the sites I discovered proclaims that a
fennec's "vocalizations are many and varied". This is an
understatement. Imagine, if you will, the little dog-creature
Fizgig from 'The Dark Crystal'. Now imagine that Fizgig
is channeling the spirits of both Fran Drescher and some kind of
scrappy pirate parrot from the 1600s. Also, this small canine alien
is suffering from PMS and has possibly stubbed it's toe, while
auditioning for the big finale scene from Les Miserables.
This is the sound that Degama makes all the time. She uses it to
say, "look at me", "don't look at me", "the cat is looking at
me", "I'm looking at the cat", "I want to bite you", "I just bit
you", "I'm going to bite you after my nap", and possibly "I
love you" although this could just be wishful thinking on my
part. Degama is the only pet I've ever had that required me to
explain to every single visitor that I was not, in fact,
experimenting with methods of horrible secret fox torture and that
she sounds like that all the time.
Finally, a website belonging to the Chaffee
Zoological Gardens in Fresno explains that "Fennecs are rare in
the first place, but they are extirpated by native desert peoples
for unknown reasons." Not that I would wish Degama any harm,
and I'm definitely glad to have her as part of my little family, but
I have to say that there are days when I know where those desert
people are coming from. 'Unknown reasons' my arse. Pfft. I
am now envisioning random desert peoples (in my head they all look
like Lawrence of Arabia, and everything they say appears on a
silent-movie dialogue sign with fancy embellishments and vintage
film grain) facing random fennec foxes, which are screaming and
growling and biting the toes of harem girls while waving their
Arabian underpants under the noses of distinguished foreign visitors
(and floating above the heads of the harem girls are thought bubbles
containing fur stoles and fox bikinis). Well, that's what I'm
envisioning now that I've looked up what 'extirpated' means,
anyway. I'm not disclosing what I thought was going on before I
looked it up, heh. |