Even though they were calling for less than an inch of snow this morning, I told my girls that if they had a late start or a snow day today that I would make a big brunch for us with homemade french toast and bacon.
Turns out they got lucky with an entire day off today, so I got the bacon going on the stove and as I always do, I grabbed my kitchen scissors and snipped off some of the excess fat from the bacon before I put it in the pan to cook.
But this time I didn't toss the fat into the trash like I usually do. I thought it might be fun to cook it up—which basically means melt it down—and mix it up with some birdseed and see if we could turn it into some type of treat for our backyard birds similar to the suet cakes that I buy at the grocery store and hang in our backyard.
And right as I am in this exact spot—snapping the photo above for this blog post, thinking of how we could use the fat for the birds—I hear the birds outside of my kitchen window at the bird feeder rush and flutter and see my cats run to the kitchen windows.
So now we're all like, There's the fox! There's the fox! Since the only time we really see them is either very early in the morning when my kids are on their way to school, or late on summer nights after dark, when I'm driving, turn the corner to our street and my headlights catches one running around from yard to yard.
I figure this one is looking for food so I throw a couple pieces of the bacon fat outside, hoping to lure him just a little bit closer so I can get a good photo of him.
He watches me do this and then he completely ignores the bacon fat, runs around my backyard for about another 45 minutes or so, tracing his same path over and over again. I told my daughter it looks like he is walking his beat!
There's a piece of the bacon fat. I thought it was funny when I saw that a little bird checked it out.
Then, a couple of minutes later, I spot her!
Now there are TWO foxes in my backyard—a boy and girl—running around and every once in a while stopping to play and roll around in the snow.
Here's the vixen:
She's playing around, face first into the snow!
Vixen fox hung out on this bank in my backyard, and soon I saw him join her and they hid away behind the wood pile that's next to this bank, and the rest is history! (yup, that's what I'm sayin'!)
I guess his running around in my backyard for a couple hours was part of their mating ritual. It was all so cool to watch and I am so glad that my kids got to see it all. Sometimes you can learn a lot on a snow day off from school!
I'm expecting to see some baby foxes running around come springtime!
What do you think?
Article, images, and designs copyright ©Laura Beth Love for Dishfunctional Designs™ 2018
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