TheBanyanTree: Foxeys

[Tom Smith]

I walk a couple miles pre-dawn, returning home just before
daylight.  The stillness, silence and darkness deliciously
heighten my senses.  I wear a yellow reflective vest and white
cap and walk slightly to the left of the center of the streets. 
I always carry a camera, a cellphone, and a "Tactical Pen" in
my shirt pocket, just in case..  This morning I walked through
a closed park, detouring around a locked gate, through a wide
opening in chain link fence in a creek-side hidden corner. By
the time I got there my night-vision was fully operational.  I
could make out three strands of barbwire running along the top
of the fence, above the gaping hole I stepped upright through.
I followed a well-worn and discernable path through dead wild
oats and other native plant life.  For the first time in my
experience, I encountered a fox or coyote in that park.  All I
could make out was a silhouette, long, low and black, crossing
the path ahead and climbing a rise to the right.  Then another
followed the first one.  When I reached the point these
critters crossed the path I looked in the direction they had
gone and saw one of them looking back at me.  I reached for the
digital camera and turned it on, but by that time, my fellow
interloper in the park had disappeared.  Camera still in hand,
I figured, what the heck, I'll take a picture anyhow, just for
memory sake.  The flash reflected two bright eyes between long
pointed ears looking back at me.  What a delight!  What a
delight to have this beautiful animal more curious than afraid
of me.

Image at http://www.flickr.com/photos/9482738@N07/5946593813/