An Unwanted Guest

Life has been exciting at our school in a totally new way this week. We've got a unexpected little friend wandering our fields, parking lot, and, well, pretty much anywhere it wants.This first picture was taken from my car as my daughter and I arrived at school. The fox was standing out front of our school, right near our library, and, if you look closely you'll see, carrying a squirrel in its mouth.

It has been around since the beginning of the week. We are concerned for a couple of reasons. One, it does not have any fear of people or cars. None. More significantly, on Monday, a teacher workday for us, some children were playing on school grounds. It is not certain what happened, but it appears that one child tried to pet the fox. The fox either bit or scratched the child. The child was more shocked than hurt as the wound was not deep or large, but did require a trip to the hospital for rabies shots.

Our school is nestled in a neighborhood, surrounded by homes. All of these pictures were taken while standing in our school parking lot. Many of our students walk to and from school, so we are working with animal control to ensure their safety. I spent about half an hour this morning, as students were arriving at school, on 'fox watch' while we waited for animal control to arrive. Unfortunately, the fox managed to continue to elude us.

We have been unable to set traps because they would be open traps which would be dangerous to our students.So, on goes the saga...