by Jan Fielden
Something is always happening at the Red Oak Ranch that keeps it very interesting!! Sitting on the porch, solving the problems of the world, we noticed running back and forth on the side of the barn…a red fox!! He/she was darting back and forth because the cows, especially the calves, started chasing it. We couldn’t believe it. The fox just kept going back and forth for a long while. The Colonel said he was going to go check it out and I mentioned that maybe it had rabies. It was not aggressive towards the other animals but I thought it might be towards him.
So, as usual, I lost that battle. He drove down there and saw where the fox was going in under the bull panels that were made into gates to keep the cows out of that side area of the barn. That is the area where we keep the wood pile. There was a small place between the “gate” and the barn that the fox could get through to the barn…not inside but to the wood pile area. Earlier this year there was a deep hole dug out under the wood, it almost looked like a tunnel but it would have run into the foundation of the barn so it was more of a hidey hole. Well, The Colonel got out of the truck, walked up and down in front of the area, looked in the hole and saw nothing. He finally came back and reported that he had found nothing. We didn’t know what had happened to the fox but thought it didn’t go in the hole and probably was hiding somewhere by the wood.
This afternoon sitting on the porch again, we saw the fox running across the pasture but unfortunately didn’t see where it came from exactly, just the general area of the barn. I also saw a hog run across the pasture, a rather large one, and then a little piglet later on ALL BY ITSELF. Unbelievable, but this is the Red Oak Ranch!
