First off, I’m happy to report that Cindy Lou was found and captured on Friday afternoon as she was running down the Queensway! It’s a miracle she wasn’t killed. Two police officers were trying to catch her when someone from Genesis Dog Rescue came along and managed to snag her to safety. She did not escape unscathed, however. She had been hit by a car at some point during her ordeal and suffered a broken leg and road rash. She’s on painkillers and she’ll be having surgery on Monday but she’s going to be just fine. I love a happy ending.
I witnessed a goosebump-inducing spectacle the other morning on my way to work. It was about 7:00 as I was cutting through the Carleton University campus. I heard some extremely raucous crows screaming blue murder, so I turned around to see what was going on.
I saw about six or eight crows chasing a red fox towards me. He was running up the concrete path and they were flying low and screaming and dive-bombing him.
I thought briefly of trying to film it, but I knew by the time I got the camera ready, the chase would have moved out of view. And there’s nothing worse than not seeing something fascinating because you were trying, unsuccessfully, to capture it on film.
I don’t know what that fox had done to incur their wrath, or how long they’d been chasing him, or how far out of town they were planning to run him, but he was definitely looking like he’d rather be anywhere else. I love crows, but I did feel sorry for the poor fox. He looked tired. I watched as he loped along and deked behind the Architecture building, the crows harassing him relentlessly. I heard the chase continuing long after I could no longer see it.
YAY Cindy Lou was even plastered all over my NS Doggie pages!!! So glad her ordeal is over!
Wow, so glad they found Cindy Lou! Thats very weird about your fox experience! Crows are smart, so who knows what was going on.
sour gripes!
Crows have the ability to remember faces. There was a professor who picked up a baby crow and took it inside a university building. Every time he came outside, he was harrassed by crows. They recognized his face and would come after him.
I don’t know how long their memories are but that poor fox could be in for a lot of trouble for a long time.
Glad to hear about Cindy, hopefully this (broken leg) was the last abuse she’ll ever suffer through. Crows don’t only remember ‘dangerous’ faces for life, they can also teach their young to be wary of those specific faces.
http://news.discovery.com/animals/angry-crows-memory-life-threatening-behavior-110628.html
What happened to the sheep in your header?
I can’t believe it! Somebody finally asked about the sheep! Some image company’s legal department claimed ownership of those sheep and threatened legal action. So I hastily took the sheep down and had every intention of replacing them with something but haven’t gotten around to it yet.
It’s been a couple of months, and you’re the first to mention it!
Unless you’re making wholesale changes — white to black background — people who read blogs are shy about bringing up changes to blogs. I change my background and blog header every few months and I think I’ve received two comments about the changes in six years. I noticed the lack of sheep here last week, but I was waiting to see if it was a mistake or something you’d fix.
…I would have thought your use of the image(s) would be copyright-proof under Fair Use rules (you can use images as long as they’re under a certain size). Or if you included a link to the image company’s site. You never had anything claiming they were your sheep.
If you’ve ever seen an image of mine that you’d like to use, just let me know and it’s yours.
donna could be right. It could be a long dispute. wonder how big the range of the fox is in town? I just saw one myself. I’ve only ever seen one that looked completely at ease and she was with her kits/pups.