Our Fox Friends
"Sparky", the Cross Fox
This is our friend, Sparky, and she is a Cross Fox! No, she's not a fox and something else cross. The "Cross Fox" is a color phase of the Red Fox.
Sparky is a beauty! We bought her from a place in 1998 as a pet, and friend to "Foxy Lady", my Silver Fox. We raised Sparky and her sister Honey, for a man, Doug Kneller, who owned a business called "The Woodland Zoo". He used to sell the babies as pets. He had foxes (artic and red types), raccoons, coyotes, bear, skunk (many different color phases), etc. His last year in business was 1998. Anyway, my "job" was to handle the babies and get them accustomed to people, so that they were friendly and could be sold.
Sparky was a NASTY little creature when we brought her home! Thus the name "Sparky". She bit me and was very cross - hehehe, yes pun cause she's a cross fox! But I digress! Doug said I should be careful with the kits (babies) around my full grown vixen (girl fox), Lady, cause she would kill them. However, the EXACT OPPOSITE occurred! Lady was 5 years old at the time and really wanted babies! There was no way I was going to risk her safety and breed her (not to mention that I wouldn't be able to part with the precious babies.) Later on that first day, I took the kits outside to go potty near the dog/fox pen. They LOVED each other on sight! After watching them interact with the cage separating them, I took them in the pen (holding them of course). Lady "Dee" took them in like they were her own! Dee never had kits of her own, but her milk came in and she nursed them just the same! As soon as Sparky met her "Mommy Lady", she was a different fox - sweet and gentle and friendly! She just missed her Mommy!
I was so attached to her by the time I was to return her to Doug to be sold, that we bought her ourselves. 
It's a weakness of mine. 
Spark is 9 year old now (2007)."Foxy Lady", the Silver Fox
(Deceased 10/2007)
Dee is my sweetie! Before we built our new house here on the farm (same land), we used to bring Dee, Sparky, and Shali (our Black Lab - you'll meet her next) into our 14x70' mobile home. They would run back and forth playing with/chasing each other through the entire length of it! They had a ball, and provided hours of entertainment!
Before Paul and I had kids, Dee would sleep on the bed by my feet. She eventually started stretching out the length of the bed between Paul and I and would sleep there at night! It was so neat, having a friend like Dee! I trained her to sit, jump for treats, etc. Took her for rides in the car, she used to trace designs on the window with her wet nose.
My girl died this year at 14 1/2 years old. She was sick in the pic above, I can see it in her eyes - it was taken in September of 2007, one month before I had to put her down. Dee had cancer.
She had a long wonderful life, and I'll miss her forever. But one day, I'll see her again in heaven with my friend and Lord, Jesus. I'll finally pick her up again, and she'll cling to me in her "foxy hug", and give me one of her fox greetings (a gentle nip on the nose - her special way that she would tell me things.) That will be wonderful. Until then, I have all the special memories of the time that I was privileged to share with her.
