Harry and Elspeth Flashman the Corsac foxes

The first snow of the year

2012-02-05T01:25:00.001Z

Today we had the first snow of the year which was very exciting for young miss Sapphire and I feel it was just what she needed to cheer her up.

Since Logan's passing life has been hard for Sapphire. She stayed inside with us for a while as she needed someone to be with her as she was accustomed to Logan being there 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. After a while we decided that after her walk we would put her in her enclosure to have a play with us which seemed to really perk her up!

Oddly though no matter how happy Sapphire might have looked she never "talked" bar to call Logan, no happy squeals at all. . .

When the weather started to get properly cold again we thought moving Sapphire back outside would be a good idea due to the central heating making her WAY too warm but she was not happy in her enclosure. I suppose that was as it was where she and Logan lived so we moved her to the enclosure we built for Logan. She seems much happier in there.

So today, as I was saying, we had our first snow!
I love the snow and since the day we got Sapphire I have been excited about this day. As Sapphire sleeps during the day when she is outside it was great to be able to be the ones to show her the snow:

Once she emerged from her house she had a good sniff of the snow:

Then a taste:

Or two:

And then she was running around screaming like all of her Christmases had come at once!

She was having a most wonderful time until she noticed that her toys were gone so she had a break from her excitement to haul them all out from under the snow:

Once she knew Swiper was safe she went to watch the dogs rolling n the snow:

Then continues frolicking:

And being Sapphire there was also a fair amount of kissing, weather her Daddy wanted kisses or not:

I shall try to film her in the snow tomorrow as I doubt I will go out bar to walk the animals as it is my day off and I have fox shaped cookie cutters to try! I got a whole set of woodland animals including a hedgehog, a squirrel, a bear, a snail, a moose and of coarse a fox! I might make fox shaped liver treats for the foxies.

Well I must be off. I have a whole day of playing in the snow with my two snow buddies (Sapphire and Audrey) tomorrow and I will need my sleep to keep up with the two of them.

December 14th - January 14th

2012-01-21T03:51:00.001Z

On January 14th my partner and I went out to Logan and Sapphire's enclosure to give them breakfast only to find that Logan who was still sleeping will never wake-up. . .
We were at the time and indeed are still shocked beyond words. He was making such progress and was so very happy, even just the night before and now to find him curled up dead. . . It was just so very shocking.

Somehow just looking at him curled up with his tail over his nose, the exact same way that he sleeps I knew he was gone yet I could not believe it. My partner checked him for a pulse and there was none. His body was becoming more and more stiff yet he was still warm from where Sapphire had been curled around him all night sleeping.

I burst out crying. Sapphire started licking away my tears as she was unsure why I was crying. At first I thought that this was as she knew Logan was gone but she had no idea, she thought Logan was still asleep so she went over and licked his face. She then nuzzled his head but she still seems to have believed he was sleeping. . .

We waited for a while with Sapphire before moving Logan's body, if an animal sees their friend is dead it is meant to help the healing process but no matter how long we waited she still did not understand. I called the vet and said what had happened and that I needed a necropsy urgently as whatever had killed Logan could possibly be a threat to all of my other fur babies. They agreed to do the procedure as soon as possible.

When we got Logan to the vet he looked him over and could not see any reason why Logan would have died so suddenly. Our vet had seen Logan multiple times over the mere month he was with us as we wanted to be sure that Logan's weight gain was steady as well as to give Logan both his distemper and parvo vaccines.

That evening when we arrived home Sapphire was sat at the door of her enclosure looking at the house. She called occasionally for Logan. We went out to spend time with her, she was not very interested in us but instead much more interested in trying to look into the house where she last saw Logan headed. We stayed outside until she dosed off but when we went back inside she woke up again and resumed waiting by the door of the enclosure.

The next day we spent all day with Sapphire. We played with her and tried our best to comfort her yet when we would cry she would try to comfort us which was very sweet but again whenever she was not entertained she would wait for Logan and call for him. Eventually we brought her inside which seemed like a good idea as we could not really sleep outside with her. . . This ended up being when she began to notice Logan was no longer here. . .

Upon entering the house she ran around looking everywhere for him; under the sofa, in the bath, under my duvet on my bed, everywhere and she started to have a bit of a mental break down. She started looking in all of these places again and again calling for Logan as she ran. She had no time for Sprite who wanted to play with her and pushed her out of her path, she was going to find Logan wherever he was. . . Or so she believed.

Eventually she fell to sleep, she was exhausted.

The next day we went and got her some new toys. We bought her everything that we thought would entertain her; Kong's, bones, chews, squeaky toys, tennis balls, ropes and dental chews which she adores as we decided we would keep her entertained to keep her spirits up. It helped a little but the best toy for Sapphire seemed to be Audrey, her 7year old human sister who apparently is brilliant fun to chase and watch Beverly hills Chihuahua with.

On January 17th the vet finally called with the results of the necropsy. It would seem that Logan's little heart just gave up when he was sleeping. The vet believes that it was caused by Logan's bad diet during the key stages of his growth so well before he came to us. The vet said that there was no way of knowing this would happen and that it is just one of those things. . .

Even though Logan was only with us for 1 month in that short amount of time he very much became an important member of our family.

Sapphire is still very confused but I think she is beginning to feel a little better. She is still not talking which is very, very odd but I am sure she will again in time.

So anyway, that's what has happened.

Before these recent events I really wanted to tell you all about how over X-mas Logan had been highly amusing but as I can't really talk about him without crying I shall past here the post I wrote on Sybil's den for you all to enjoy:

"So I was in hospital for a couple or days, not working which was odd for me as I have only been admitted to hospital a couple of times in my life. It was just very bad tonsillitis so no big deal. I am allot better now.

ANYWAY when I was in hospital everything went wrong for Mr Elina; he fed my African Pygmy dormice and one got out which he could not catch and even after 24 hours has not gone into the humane mouse trap. He had to deal with Valla being of the belief that he had hidden me so she could not see me so she grunted at him whenever he went near her and argued with him when he put her to bed. Mr Sapphire climbing out of his enclosure. . . TWICE!

Mr Elina saw him the first time and was very confused. When he got over the top he came to the back door and Mr Elina eventually caught him, cut his nails which were quite long as we had not cut them yet as he is a bit freaked out by us and put him back. Mr Elina thought that he had jumped from the platform so he took that out too. A little while later he looked outside and Mr Sapphire was crouched atop one of the panels. Mr Sapphire then quickly got to the floor and ran off and as he had been caught once before he knew how to evade capture a second time. Mr Elina had to spend hours chasing Mr Sapphire around the 2.5acres (approx) he had access too eventually catching him and managing to put him in Sapphire's enclosure which has a roof.

During this Sapphire tried to follow her man as it looked like he and her Daddy were having a blast but she just fell on her behind so I do not believe all arctics can climb BUT if one can I am guessing this is not some kind of oddity and thus others will be able too so make sure you put roofs on your enclosures. I think one contributing factor to Mr Sapphire's ability to climb is that unlike Sapphire he is underweight and thus it was much easier for him to manoeuvre himself. I am amazed that even with short claws he managed this.

I just wanted to let you all know as I know a few of you got Arctics this year and though I am sure they are all nice and chunky right now come Summer time they might slim down and I don't want you all to be shocked at your foxes sudden cat like agility. "

Today Logan returned home, allot less furry and allot smaller. I have placed his ashes on the fireplace next to Freyja with his collar atop of him the same way Freyja's is atop of her.
I miss them both so much but at least now I can think that Freyja has a friend to play with while she waits for us at the rainbow bridge. . .

Mr Sapphire finally has a name!

2012-01-09T22:46:00.000Z

Yes you all read right; Mr Sapphire finally has a name!

After weeks of trying different names out we have settled on a name and oddly enough it was one of the very first we tried. I guess it is like a wedding dress where you normally end up wanting the first one you ever tried on.

So without further a do I shall list our winners!

In third place is Michelle Roderick with Denim.

In second place is Laura Jane Nolan with Hinto.

And our winner of the Mr Sapphire needs a new name competition is

Nicola Carter Barnes

with

If the winners could please send me a message on here or Facebook I will get your badges off to you A.S.A.P.

Thank you all for your wonderful ideas but there could only be one.

I have of stuff to tell you all about the foxes over Christmas but I must be off to feed everyone their dinner.

TTFN!

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-24T22:29:00.003Z

I just wanted to wish you all a wonderful X-mas and a fabulous New year and what better way then with a festive Fennec!

Have a great Holiday season everyone!

- The Flashmans

PS: Not chosen a name for Mr Sapphire yet, will inform the winner when I have but keep the suggestions coming!

Mr. Sapphire needs a first name

2011-12-19T01:18:00.001Z

I am stuck for a first name for Mr Sapphire and would love the help of you all. Preferably something that goes with the colour blue as he, like Sapphire is a blue phase Arctic fox. Person with the best name wins 4 Flashman foxes badges, 4 runners up get 1 each!

So far my other half want's to go for Smurf but I don't see that one happening and my daughter again want's to go for Slush like she wanted us to choose for Sapphire as she likes blue slush puppies but I am not sure. . .

Either reply to this blog post or on our Facebook page with your ideas.

I very much look forward to hearing from you all!

Continued. . .

2011-12-17T03:13:00.000Z

I am back as promised.

Here are some photos of Sapphire showing "Mr Sapphire" around which I forgot to post last night:

Mr Sapphire looking down on me when he eventually worked out how to get on top of the kennel:

Now where were we. . . Oh yes the next morning.

After waking up multiple times during the night to go and make sure the two of them were getting along I was quite sure and relieved to find that they were very much the best of friends!

When the sun finally came up off I went in my Wellington boots armed with their breakfast and the means to clean up any "accidents" as I was unsure of quite how litter trained Mr Sapphire was.

Upon my arrival I was greeted by a very soggy Sapphire and the tail of Mr Sapphire as he retired to the shed.

Sapphire was very happy to see me however it took her a while to get to me as she was attempting to avoid stepping in any of the "accidents" Mr. Sapphire had through out the night.

When I walked towards the platform I saw quite how many the poor chap had had and felt a tad guilty about de worming him the night before. . .

I saw lots of cute little beds that he had made of hay from the hay bale however on each bed there was a pile of what looked like Spaghetti. . . Oh no I thought, worms. . .

Well it explained why a fox with the thickest coat of any mammal whose spine I could see through said coat had a belly and yet I was very confused how two house holds had had him as an inside pet and failed to notice this. . .

Thankfully worms are easy to fix and as Sapphire is wormed regularly she is in no danger of getting them even though she had spent a fair amount of the night before "kissing" Mr Sapphire. I am so very glad she is not into rolling in excrement like red foxes do when they are young.

That afternoon Mr Sapphire had his first vet trip booked but before we went I let the vet know about the worms and he asked for a sample which was easy enough. (Very disgusting though.)

Upon our arrival at the vets Mr Sapphire was checked over and I was told that he is very underweight as expected and also has been malnourished which was also as expected. His worms were some of the largest the vet had seen with one measuring 11inches in length so he probably had them since birth and was just never treated. The vet said that Mr Sapphire was very lucky to have found us and that he could think of no better place for him to be which I though was very nice of him.

Here are some random photos I took of the happy couple. . . normally not together as it is actually very hard to get them to both stay still.

Mr Sapphire exploring me:

Mr Sapphire sniffing Sapphire's Kong, you can see how skinny he is and also his worm belly:

Sapphire at breakfast:

Mr Sapphire says "hi!":

Mr Sapphire looking quite handsome:

Sapphire stood in the way when I was about to take a good photo of Mr Sapphire:

Mr Sapphire coming out of the shed:

Tails. Sapphire left Mr Sapphire right:

I just noticed I totally forgot to click to post this entry until now which I am afraid is 1 day late, forgive me?

The spare enclosure and other news.

2011-12-16T00:28:00.001Z

Yikes I am SO behind the main reason for which being that my camera has been missing since November and my old camera was in storage. Needless to say is is not any longer.

I believe one of the foxes, namely Harry has nabbed it but I do like to wonder what someone would think if I lost it in a public place and they found it as on the memory card there are photos of Valla and Sprite in the Halloween costumes, Harry and Elspeth's second birthday party and various other photos of just foxes lazing around.

So anyway yes on November 13th it was Harry and Elspeth's second birthday! It amazes me that they have only been with me for such a short amount of time and yet they have shaped my life so very much and changed the way I think about so many things. . . Speaking of which as I type this I am sitting at my desk, at home with five and a half, maybe a quarter socks on my desk, one of my partners slippers and two felt tip pens all of which have been confiscated from Harry, Elspeth and Rudi in the last 45 mins.

The question is would I go back in time and change my predicament so my desk was once more free from their treasures? No way! I love all 9 of my fox kids and I would never have it any other way. I actually asked my partner and daughter the same question and my daughter said the only thing she would change is she would make Akiko sleep in her room so she could be her fox (this might I add shall never happen of else neither of them shall sleep). My partner just wished he could have Freyja back as well as having the others which we all wish could happen. . . And his slipper which he just noticed was among the treasures on my desk.

So what has happened since I last posted. Well ever so much as a matter of fact and as I got my old camera (which refuses to acknowledge it is not July) out of storage I have been able to document some of it in photos.

Now where to begin. . .

Akiko got a wonderful Tinkerbell hammock all the way from America with the help of our friend Dru (whose blog you can find here: http://illustratedrat.blogspot.com/ ) . Dru is very much into Rats and when she put up a link to a rat rescue I believe it was that made cute hammocks for rats I just knew Akiko would love one and Dru was kind enough to help us get one to the UK.

Akiko loves her hammock and it is just so very perfect for her! She was quite unsure at first though so we had to put it up so that it rested on a shelf at first and the I slowly moved it higher and now she is always in there, if not sleeping she is rolling around it in just for fun.

Harry and Valla have a new favourite food: baby carrots!
I would not have expected it but yep, they love baby carrots. I am pretty sure it is just because they are really crunchy OR because Audrey and I are always munching them but either way it is very odd to see a fox turn down a chicken wing in favour of a carrot. . .

December 5th was Sprite's second birthday! Unlike Harry and Elspeth's birthday with is really the day we brought them home as Sprite actually has documentation of when her birthday is we can actually celebrate the right day. Much like Harry and Elspeth's birthday all the fur kids got their favourite food, Sprite got to go to pets at home and choose some toys herself (the foxes don't do that bit, I don't think it would go down too well).

We built a spare enclosure which we then moved Sapphire into to help us fault find (we chose her for this job as though she is an amazing escape artist she always comes and tells us she is out). This is the first time we have not put something solid down as the base to prevent escape as in Harry and Elspeth's enclosure we used cement, on Sapphire's we used galvanised wire covered in paving slabs which were covered in bark chips which is great but this time we just used galvanised wire covered in bark. It was all going really well until the third day when she had dug all around the outer edge which made me worry (she had not gotten through the wire) so I brought in some paving slabs and put them where the biggest holes were. I later the same day found out why she had been digging as she dug another hole and then after some rummaging around pulled out a large stone and took it inside the shed and there I see she has a collection of them!

The new enclosure is entirely the work of my partner on the designing front. It has a 9ft x 9ft outside run and an shed measuring 6ft by 8ft which unlike Sapphire's enclosure is not inside but instead the run is attached to the front of it as though the shed was a house and the run the front garden.

Though much smaller then Sapphire's enclosure which has been extended yet further it has many of the features including a dog house in the shed which I think my partner mainly did to amuse me and a platform however we made that too tall and had to buy a bale of hay to be used as a step and according to Sapphire it is also to be used to rub and roll on as it smells very nice (apparently).

Here are a few photos of Sapphire hanging out in there:

Sniffing Audrey's shoes:

Looking beautiful! :

Loving her Dad:

Don't try the above at home with a random fox or your pet fox if they are not accustomed to it. Sapphire has been hugged from an early age. I know it sounds odd to add that but there are really some stupid people about, not that I think any of you are but with the Holidays upon us one to many drinks can make people do some crazy things lol.

Seeing as I love foxes so much it sounds normal for me to have a random extra enclosure for no apparent reason just sitting there waiting to be filled with the next wonderful critter. We actually built this enclosure as there is somewhat of a distemper epidemic sweeping Britain and we were readying for a new member of the Flashman household.

You may remember my partner was not too pleased when I got him to move Sapphire outside. Well since she moved out I have been told daily that she needs a friend and that she is lonely and I have been asked just as often if she can come back inside as she really does not smell now.

Well, though Sapphire actually smells very little now and she does seem to live for when we went out to see her and take her for her walks I just did not wan't to move her back inside.It's not because I am mean which my 7yr old daughter informed me but because we have the heating on so much now she would cook with her winter coat. Long story short I agreed to look for a friend for her.

I looked high and low and was offered a few but then I found one that seemed to really need a knowledgeable home.

I would like you all to meet "Mr Sapphire":

Mr Sapphire is a blue phase Arctic fox just like Sapphire is just he has had a bad start in life.

Mr Sapphire's first owners basically has no idea and fed him on potatoes, no meat to keep down his "foxy smell" and bathed him every day using head and shoulders! (Neither of this would keep a fox from smelling "foxy" might I add.)

His second home did not have him for very long at all.

The day we brought him home we stopped in the kitchen to fix him some dinner before heading into the garden to take him to his enclosure, that was when I took the above photo.

Once he had finished his dinner we wandered outside to the enclosure, went inside, set down his travel cage, opened the door and POOF! there was Sapphire sniffing his nose!

You see little did I know that though we had the night before moved Sapphire to her enclosure that during the day when we were collecting him "someone" (I shall not name names hehe) took her for a walk and put her back in the wrong enclosure! We had not seen her as she was sleeping in the shed.

So anyway there was out great plan of segregating them gone and a gradual introduction gone but thankfully as all of our animals are inoculated against parvo and distemper and regularly de wormed it was not actually too big a deal for them to meet, it was just not how I expected it to go.

In all honestly I could not have expected it to go as well as it did!

After sniffing each others noses and all over each others body they took off together with Sapphire leading the way showing him around his new home, she even showed him that her humans are tame hehe.

As Sapphire is a total foodie I did not expect her to be okay with him licking the bowls but she was fine and showed no aggression at all towards him. They his it off wonderfully.

After about an hour sat with them we retired inside but checked on them regularly. I saw one of the most adorable things I have ever seen on one of the times which was the two of them sitting atop the platform licking each others tongues! I thought it looked very odd at first the two of them "kissing" each other with their tails wagging like mad but at the same time it was so cute to see them both being so happy!

Now though I am not done updating you all I must go as I have the flu and I feel totally, utterly gruesome so I shall bid you all good night and return tomorrow with the rest of my news. My photos are already on my P.C. so even if my camera should vanish I shall be able to continue.

Good night all!

Happy belated Halloween

2011-11-01T23:03:00.000Z

Firstly I would like to say HAPPY HALLOWEEN for yesterday, as would young Akiko the fennec fox:

Yesterday was a wonderful day here in the Flashman household with many more treats then tricks. Valla and Sprite sported matching Halloween costumes of which both girls were very happy, Valla even more so then Sprite as she had cloths that were hers this did however not stop her from trying to take Sprite's too but what can I say, she is a fox and they do very much like to have belongings.

Though none of the other foxes got to dress up they still joined in the merriment with treats of various luxury meats mixed into their normal food such as venison, duck, pheasant and such which they very much enjoyed!

I have taken many, many photos for you all however I have misplaced my camera so I shall when I find it I shall post the photos as soon as possible for you all to enjoy. As for now to keep you all amused have this video if Sprite and Akiko playing:

It is quite long next to our normal videos but I urge you to watch right until the end to see the magic which is Akiko swapping from a white mouse to a black mouse without anyone noticing and no camera trickery at all!

When I said that none of the other foxes bar Valla got to dress up I might have lied a little but only the tiniest little bit. You see Sapphire has donned her fall coat which we have been joking makes her look like she was dressed as a ghost for Halloween.

You will have noticed that I said her 'Fall coat' which will have puzzled you as you, being a lover of foxes will know that they only have two coats; one for winter and one for summer. Well, I have dubbed Sapphire's current coat her Fall coat as whenever I think she is as light as a blue phase Arctic will get she gets lighter so I am not totally sure if she is quite done her transformation yet.

This photo was taken on October 17th:

And this one on October 30th:

I think you will agree that she has changed a fair amount in a very short time frame.

I must say it is very odd to think that this large pale grey creature was once the tiny little black one depicted here:

Well I shall go now to find my camera, it must be here somewhere but I suppose the question as always is where. . .

TTFN!

Fennec fox Vs Papillon round 1

2011-10-25T00:58:00.000+01:00

Sprite, the papillon has become more and more fond of playing with Akiko the fennec fox the bigger she grows. I think now Sprite is not as worried as she was before about breaking the tiny delicate little fennec.

As always Sprite will only play rough on a bed or sofa which is great as I am quite sure that if they played on the wood floor someone would get hurt.

Akiko is getting quite good at understanding how to play, she knows that is Sprite squeaks she should let her go.

I took a few photos of the two of them last night along with the above video, I hope you guys like them!:

In the last photo Akiko's eyes are the oddest colour, they are not like that normally before anyone asks.

Though Akiko may understand that when Sprite squeaks it means to leave her alone she has yet to learn that when I squeak I mean the same:

My poor toes!

You may have noticed the red patch on Akiko's thigh? That is from her red feather cat teaser, she slept next to it the other night and it dyed her fur and I cannot wash it off so she is stuck with this red patch for now. I do not think I would mind so much if it was a funny colour but that it is red makes her look wounded! Maybe I can pass it off as a Halloween costume on the 31st? hehe!

Akiko's tower.

2011-10-20T00:21:00.003+01:00

It is not just Sapphire who has a new house, she is not even the only one to have two new houses as young Akiko the fennec fox has moved up in the world quite literally:

I had ordered her a ferret nation over a month ago but the company seem to have never sent it but thankfully they gave me a refund which was great as the same day I managed to scoop a critter nation which is basically the same cage for half the price! Until the Critter nation arrives young Akiko has my sisters old ferret cage which is okay for now but I would never go out of my way to buy one for a fennec. There really is not much room to play and it is hard to get her out without encountering a ramp on your way. This cage is great as a gap filler though.

One of Akiko's favourite things is the tiny new bed I got her:

It is meant to be for rats and chinchilla's but it seems just perfect for a young fennec:

Look at those ears!:

I was really worried this morning when I went to give Akiko her breakfast of live Moreo worms as when she stood up one of her hind legs was all red! I thought she was hurt but then I noticed that the red that was on her leg matched the red of the feathery cat teaser that I have dangling in her cage, above her bed! Sometimes I think my foxes have a competition to see who can worry me the most.

As Akiko gets through 24 moreo worms per day at least and her parents get through twice that my partner decided to try his hand at 'farming' them, he has been doing this for about a month maybe. He is also growing meal worms.

The meal worms are going really well however the moreo worms just seemed to be getting bigger but not changing into pupae so we read up how to encourage them to do this and long story short he now has 4 huge, disgusting white pupae. When he showed me I ran out of the room screaming. I had thought spiders were the only thing that could do that to me but apparently not! Learn something new every day. . .

I would end this entry by showing you all a photo of these disgusting, wiggling things BUT as I will not go near them let alone plaster their images all over my blog I will end today with a photo of Inari who, like the pupae is nearly white but he is awfully cute;

Even if he was being a grump!

Sapphire's 'house'.

2011-10-18T00:14:00.000+01:00

Today started as any other day, I woke up, got out of bed and started my walk to the bathroom however today I noticed something a little odd; There was an Arctic fox who goes by the name of Sapphire sat at my bedroom door, the same fox should have been in her outside enclosure that we built for a week before.

I was initially quite confused as to how she had magically materialised in my room as the bedroom door and windows were locked yet upon going to wake my partner to inform him that Sapphire was some sort of wizard the muddy paw prints on his side of the bad gave it away.

"She was cold" he told me when I asked him why exactly he had brought her in "she is too. . . portly to fit in her kennel". After a discussion about how Arctic foxes are from, well, the Arctic and that she would be fine on a chilly Autumn night my partner said that if she has to sleep outside we should get her a house for out there to which I agreed. I had planned to buy her a kennel anyway just the local pet shop had none bigger then the one she was too big to fit into in stock last I visited.

Once I had fed and watered the foxes and dogs I went out to go to the spa with some friends and decided that I would pick Sapphire up a bigger kennel on the way home.

About four hours later I returned with what I thought was an amazingly large kennel which I was sure my partner would be so very pleased with. I decided to walk around the side of the house to where Sapphire's outside enclosure is to start putting it together as a surprise for them both.

When I got to Sapphire's outside enclosure and walked in I was met by a shed! I had no idea what it was doing there but there was a shed in her enclosure which, I believe was shedless when I had left earlier in the day. There was the sound of a power stapler coming from inside so I wandered around to the door of the structure to find out what was going on. "What do you think?" my partner asked with a huge smile on his face "It was the biggest I could fit in the car". I asked him why there was a shed in Sapphire's enclosure to which he replied "It's Sapphire's house, remember you said she could have one". I went to the side of the shed where I had left the box containing the kennel I had bought her and dragged it to the shed door "hun, this is a dog house" I told him. He informed me that Sapphire is NOT in fact a dog and so she did not require a dog house. I asked him where exactly it said that an animal smaller then a dog needed a shed to sleep in and he told me to stop being silly and to come inside the shed.

I was actually very impressed with the shed, sorry, I mean Sapphire's house.

The 'fox house' is 6ft by 8 ft so quite large but not too large as her enclosure measures 15ft by 30ft. My partner showed me how he had bought adhesive vinyl floor tiles and had put those down to make it easy to clean and how he had put a doggy door into the shed door so Sapphire could come and go as she pleased but would not get 'cold' , he had stapled mesh to the first 2-3ft of the wall to prevent her from pulling she shed apart and he had stapled an old blanket to the window so that it would remain dark in there for if she wanted to sleep when it was sunny (he loves his little girl).

All in all I was very impressed with Sapphire's new bedroom but had no idea where to put her new kennel. My partner liked the look of the kennel I had bought and said that there was one thing still missing and that she needed a bed SO we constructed the kennel and put that inside the shed SO Sapphire now has a kennel within a shed to sleep in.

The only thing still missing was young Sapphire herself who had been relaxing in her old bedroom inside the house while the shed and kennel were erected.

My partner went to get her while I stuffed her kennel with straw and lavender scented sawdust (I normally use it for my dormice) and some of Audrey's old cloths.

Upon seeing her new palace Sapphire was quite weary and only actually entered with help as she had no idea how to use the doggy door. I don't blame her there though, it is not normal to head-butt something that looks like a window and have it open hehe.

After a while she seemed quite fond of her new room and brought her Swiper the fox toy from out on the grass inside and then into the sleeping area.

I think she is impressed with it even though I clearly put the straw in the wrong place as two seconds after I left the shed she had strewn it EVERYWHERE!

Here are some photos of her in her 'house':

I think Sapphire is a very happy little girl now.

Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter.

2011-10-11T00:07:00.000+01:00

I totally forgot to scan these back in February when I got these very, very cool WWF envelopes with matching stamps.
Now I am not nor have I ever been into stamp collecting though I can see the appeal as each stamp is a mini work or art. Take for example the envelope that the envelopes I am about to show you came in:

Okay the cow ones are funny but still they are little bit's of artwork.

How I found the envelopes is quite funny.
I had been to Budapest last December and wherever I go I get a patch and in Budapest we were having real trouble finding one until we stumbled upon a stamp shop. When we went inside I did not really look around and just bought my patch and left.

In February, so 2 months later I found out that WWF brought out a set of stamps and envelopes with Corsac foxes on them so I decided I MUST have them. After a quick search on Google my partner found them for me. . . from the stamp shop in Budapest that I had been in in December! SO the reason that the patch is the thing obscuring our address is as I got it in the same place as the contents which I thought was pretty neat!

Now without further a do here are my WWF Vulpes Corsac envelopes:

Spring & Summer:

Autumn & Winter:

And as you cannot see the stamps very well I found this close up on Google images:

I wish people used these all the time. I mean even bills would not be too bad if they came in envelopes covered in the images of adorable little foxes!

Valla - Britain's next top model

2011-10-09T20:42:00.001+01:00

Last night when I stopped blogging and decided that maybe it was time for bed Valla did something I had never, ever seen a non human do. . . She bit her tongue!

Now you may giggle, I actually am right now and it did look funny when she did it as it was like she forgot to put her tongue away BUT having such very big, sharp teeth it actually was quite worrying. There was blood, not much but blood at all makes me worry with my kids, mostly with my fur kids as with Audrey my only non furry kid I can sort out but with my fur kids the exotics vet is over an hour away and is not open in the middle of the night.

ANYWAY the blood that was coming from her tongue looked like far more then there was as she is blonde and it had gotten on her fur and combined with her drool had covered her face. She was a bit freaked out so ran to my room and sat in my closet. (She likes hiding under my dresses when she is in a mood.) When I picked her up out of there she snuggled into me and started licking my hands. It did not take me long to notice she was licking my hands as she could not lick her own tongue so this was the best she could do as the blood from her tongue was going on my hands and she could lick that off. A little while after she stopped licking my hands she decided to try to lick in my mouth as she did not see why I was not licking her poor tongue better! This was a wee bit too much so I passed her onto Sprite who was more then happy to help her best friend.

So Valla is all okay now, she was just a bit worried as was I but she was back to running around with Sprite a few minuets later however she still felt a bit sorry for herself.

Prior to the tongue incident Valla had seen me putting a jumper on Sprite who wanted to go in the garden but was so very cold. Valla did not understand why she was not being treated the same, why she was not being put into a jumper so she decided to run off with one!

It was very, very funny as she looked at all of Sprite's clothing for a while until she decided that the brown jacket would be perfect for herself. (I think it was the golden coloured buttons that closed the deal.)

I called Valla back to me and she came, reluctantly as she was quite sure I would be upset with her. I then went to get the coat from where she had hidden it.

As Valla sat on the bed watching me as I put the coat away I decided to let her try it out. I was being unfair not letting her join in and she seemed to think I had decided Sprite was now my favourite as she looked very unhappy.

Foxes normally do not care if you want to involve them in things but Valla really hates it when Sprite does anything she is not allowed to do or gets things she is not allowed to have so we normally make sure not to do that, the girls always have the same things.

SO I put Valla's new harness on her which seemed to be a hit as it has little diamanté bit's on it and then I put the jacket on her. I would NEVER have thought a fox would be so happy to join in with a dog wearing clothing!

Valla spun around on the bed and ran down the hall after Sprite, I would suppose to show her how she was doing the same thing. Sprite seemed confused as to why Valla was so excited about just wearing a jacket and retreated back to my room. Valla was not far behind.

As I had my camera on my bedside cabinet I decided to take a few photos.

I posted a few of the photos on Facebook and a friend said that Valla would look nice in pink so as Valla was already having such a good time trying out Sprites wardrobe I let her try on a pink jumper too:

As you can see I was not holding her lead, she was too busy bouncing on her favourite trampoline in her stylish new togs to care hehe.

Valla noticing that she had her lead on.

Oh no she's found Sprite's morning treat bag! I just love the 'hunting' foot hehe.

Practising her zombie eyes ready for Halloween.

Her show dog pose. You have no idea how hard it is to get her to stand like that. It involves allot of treats hehe.

And here is my beautiful girl in just her new harness:

Her brush is so fluffy! It is not as long as Rudi's but it is so poofy I just adore it!

I just wanted to say that I would never have put Valla in the cloths if she did not want to. Unlike Sprite she has a winter coat on her naturally and thus has no need for winter wear, I just let her try them on to join in with Sprite and as you can see she enjoyed it.

Valla's new harness is the same as the one Freyja had but in black opposed to pink. It is mean to be for adult cats but it is still way too big for Valla even on the smallest settings. You can see how much of her is just fur.

Poor Akiko, like Sprite has no winter coat but also has no winter coats so she has stolen my stripy hot water bottle:

Earlier today I had quite a shock as I was peeling mangoes to dehydrate for Audrey's lunch and Rudi jumped on the kitchen counter, took a mango skin and ran off! I was totally amazed that he managed the jump with but 3 working legs and more amazed that he managed to land on his 3 good legs!

He does not seem to impressed with him mango skin but he will not give it up for anything, not even a chicken wing as I think he is proud of himself for getting it. . . I must be honest, I am proud of him too.

The fennec formerly known as ' Princess '

2011-10-09T05:50:00.000+01:00

So as 'Princess' go older and we had to use her name more often ("Princess, drop the sock!", "Princess don't poop there!" etc) we decided that we really had to change her name.

We had planned to for some time but it had become quite urgent as Valla, Sprite, Elspeth, Sapphire and even my 7yr old human daughter Audrey were becoming increasingly annoyed with me telling them off for things they did not do as I have a habit of calling all my girls 'Princess'.

I tried many, many names and none seemed to stick and I constantly caught myself calling her 'Princess' so I asked for help on Sybil's den (http://www.raskbb.com/sybilsden/) and Facebook where many people gave me many ideas but none quite worked until 'the_unstable' on Sybil's den posted a link to a website with Japanese names.

After many hours sat there with 'Princess' on my knee I tried many, many names and eventually narrowed it down to two: Akiko which means Autumn or Bright child or Kimiko which means happy beautiful or noble child.

With the help of Kimberly Deverell and her Japanese language skills she was able to tell me that the meanings were correct and I chose Akiko (Bright child).

SO without further a-do here is Akiko the fennec fox kit:

We also gave her a brand new (also her very first) collar to go with that new name:

She looks like she 'belongs' now.

The weather has been so very odd here as of late, this time last week it was 27 degrees and yet now it is so very cold! When it was hot Harry, Elspeth, Rudi, Valla and Sapphire were so very moody as they have their winter coats on and just could not cope with the heat. The fennecs were in their element and were so very happy with the extra days of sunshine.

Thankfully for our winter wear foxes it has cooled right down which has now upset the fennecs, I just cannot win! Akiko has decided that a cushion on the radiator or one of the cat beds that hooks on are perfect for her:

Her parents have decided that sleeping atop each other is more their sort of thing.

Sprite the Papillon is also a fair weather critter and seeing as she has no undercoat and unlike the fennecs does have to go outside to go to the bathroom and go for walks I got her some jumpers and coats:

When we were getting Sprite her Winter attire we saw the most adorable cat toy which we thought would be perfect for Akiko. It is a cube covered in the same stuff as a cat's scratch post with the shapes of cat heads cut out on four sides with mice hung in the cut outs on elastic.

I am very glad to say that it is a hit!

However so too is a the top of a juice carton. . .

Oh well, whatever makes her happy!

I must be off as Sprite and Valla are arguing over a jacket hehe.

TTFN!

And then there was one. . .

2011-09-22T23:11:00.001+01:00

So here we are 21 days since my last post and my lap is decidedly empty with but one Phoenix kit sitting on it; Princess, who has become very clingy since her brothers Giggles and Churchill and her sister Amali went to their new homes.

Giggles went to a pet home on September 11th, the same day Amali went to live with http://debonaireexoticanimalencounters.com/ and hopefully the future love of her life Pharaoh who is a few months older then her who I had the pleasure to meet at the Ark exotics awareness back in July. Here are Pharaoh and Amali together:

Pharaoh was the sole survivor of a litter of two kits and I think that is why he seems so mellow next to Amali who grew up with 3 siblings (and a Papillon) to play with at all hours of the day and night. I am sure he will become more accustomed to her idea of play in time. Thankfully she really seems to like him!

Churchill stayed with us for an extra week before going to his new pet home in Wales. He seems to be having an amazing time with his new family especially his new mum Paula.

Here he is in his new home where his new name is Phoenix:

Doing his favourite thing, eating! I am glad the move did not effect his appetite hehe!

Exploring:

Phoenix: 'Shh I'm hiding! :

And then there was one.

Young 'Princess' took her big brother moving out worst then when her Amali and Giggles left as 'Churchill' was her great protector. He was the ring leader and the bravest of them where she was very much the most fearful when it came to exploration. Now instead of eating Morio worms being great fun she is a little worried of them and yesterday actually ran away from them! Before her big brother would have saved her but now that job belonged to Sprite the papillon who also does not like them so insects being a staple of her diet was not going so well so we downgraded her back to meal worms which she seems allot less worried about.

Here is a video of 'Princess' and Churchill eating moreo worms:

I think 'Princess' needs a man in her life, not necessarily a mate, just someone to protect her as now she has decided that my partner is her favourite of the humans and will sit and watch him for hours calling to him whenever she cannot see him to be sure he has not gone far. She also likes to sit on his lap but that is tricky as the other lap fox in my partner life Sapphire the arctic fox is SO big he cannot hug them both at once for fear that Sapphire will crush 'Princess'.

You may wonder why I keep writing 'Princess' like that, well I am still not sure what to name her. The other day she was 'Prinseski' as my other half watched something about Russia, she has been Persil as she is small and mighty I just do not know what to name her. Should I name her something Japanese like Inari and Kitsune or maybe something Egyptian? I cannot decide so if any of you have any ideas let me know. My 7 year old daughter thinks Tinkerbell is nice or Tinker but she already named one of my Asian garden dormice Tinkerbell so we can't reuse the same names. I thought maybe Pixie as they are meant to have pointy ears and then I would have Sprite and Pixie. . . I don't know, I like the idea of all the corsacs names matching and all the fennecs names matching. . . Is there a Japanese Pixie?

Here are some random photos of the Phoenix kits last week or so together:

Bath time!

A visit to see Auntie Nix:

Together:

And then there was one:

I have so many more photos I need to upload of everyone and videos I need to edit but sadly I have to go now, I am falling to sleep at my desk so good night people!

Trials and tribulations of photographing & bathing foxes

2011-09-01T22:28:00.000+01:00

Sapphire has a very busy life style between playing with the dog, playing with Valla, sleeping, eating those second and third breakfasts we talked about before and visiting friends.

On Sunday we took her to visit a friend she had not met before. She was a little worried at first which made her a weee bit smelly as her violet gland was working over time so we had a look around their garden and made sure there was nowhere she could escape and let her go out and play.

We all actually ended up evacuating the house as Sapphire had made it so smelly! With all the windows and doors open and Sapphire in the garden the only challenge then was to keep her in the garden she she was quite sure the smells of cooling were some new way to call her inside.

As I had forgotten my camera the iphone had it's work cut out for it, especially with it's 2 second pause before it actually bothers to take the photo you have asked it to take and little fox who will not stand still for two seconds.

So here is our first photo. Not too sure what she is doing but I am sure when the button was clicked to take the photo it was something adorable.

Sapphire heading for the kitchen.

Coming at the kitchen from the other direction.

Eating the sea shells from on the path. At least this time we have her face in the photo.

I think this one is actually pretty cute! I love that you can see the shape of her and how her tail is more white then 'blue'.

Oh she found a leaf! We know she loves those!

She looks a little like a show dog here with this pose. You cannot see most of her harness as though it is not tight to her body her fur is so fluffy it covers it.

And she's off again!

Can you spot her?

Eating sea shells again!

And again. . .

Sapphire loved these yellow flowers she was looking at in this photo. She lost interest when she found one on the lawn, chewed it and found out it was NOT yummy hehe.

Sapphire- "Oh wow a whole load of leaves! Where do they come from?"

Sapphire- "I will just take a look."

As you can see out of 13 photos we have but 2 good ones!

This often also happens when I take photos with my camera as opposed to my phone. I normally try to post only the best or most amusing ones but today I thought I would show you why photographers (of which I am not) often say that they will not photograph children or animals.

On Tuesday I was playing with Valla in my bedroom but then when we came to leave she would not as our bengal cats were stood at the bedroom door hissing at her. I am not sure why they hate her but they do so I took the chance to film her playing on my bed with her Eeyore.

The video has no sound as I removed it as all you could hear was the cats.

When we finally left the room Valla was quite worried as we made our way to the living room and checked every room along the way for cats:

She came to collect me and escort me past the rooms once she knew they were safe:

I think she was trying to make sure I was safe or maybe she needed backup but wanted to appear brave hehe.

Earlier the same day the Phoenix kits had their very first bubble bath as they decided to hide some of their food in their bed. . . And sleep on it. This had created a sort of vomit coloured, meaty hair gel and would not come off with a damn cloth nor a rub and roll in the sandbox so a bath was our only option.

If you watched the video with the sound on yes, you heard me right I use conditioner on them. Why is as it is a puppy one and it is meant to be good for their skin so I am all up for that. And yes I used lavender scented bubble bath and shampoo on them as it is meant to be calming.

I actually spoil all of my foxes like this, they all have very nice bubble bath and other things and this is because I think it will make it a nicer experience for them all, I mean we must remember Harry and the cherry bubble bath:

I am quite sure they do not all have expensive taste like Harry and, would like the bath to be over as fast as possible but you can't blame me for trying!

Sadly after the bath while I was towel drying them I let them lay on my lap when I dried their backs which resulted in my new blue jeans dying their tummies blue! So all of the little phoenix kits have blue tummies hehe!

Do any of you remember when I first brought Sprite my papillon puppy home and she was adopted by Harry and Elspeth? Well here we are 1 year later and Sprite has now adopted the Phoenix kits! You would think that the phoenix kits would now think they are dogs but as Sprite is quite sure she is a fox and acts like one 95% of the time I think they have turned out more foxy then if they had never encountered Sprite.

Here is Sprite with 'her' two little girls:

I had put the two of them on my chair to take photos of them but Sprite was upset as she had just gotten them to sleep oops!

Here are some of the photos:

'Princess' aka Persil small and mighty hehe.

Amali being weary of the camera.

'Princess' having a hug. She is so small she makes my small hands look HUGE!

'Princess' on my lap

'Princess' on my desk chair.

'Princess' on my chair.

'Princess' on my chair

Amali and Princess on my chair.

The girls stare down the camera

Amali (left) 'Princess' (right)

So I think that is enough for now. I shall bore you all again tomorrow maybe if I have any free time and/or space on my camera's memory card.

TTFN!

Nom nom nom nom!

2011-08-29T23:47:00.000+01:00

The other day the fennecs were eating their dinner and I decided to film it. We all know fennecs can be pretty loud as adults right? Well the phoenix kits are also pretty loud and they were only 6 weeks old when I made this film AND their mouths were full!

They are so cute and so very funny I watch them for hours when I have the time.

People have asked me allot what the fennec kits have been eating and normally I just reply bugs and turkey/chicken mince but actually they have a few more things such as live meal worms and baby food. . . Yep you read right, baby food.
The fennec kits were having awful trouble with their veggies so I decided to purée them which they loved but made such an awful mess in the blender that the dishwasher did not do well at removing and I HATE cleaning the blades by hand as I fear I will cut myself SO I bought them baby food as it is pre blended. They have Plum brand Spinach , parsnip and basil which I mix into their ground meat. They have tried the parsnip, apple and pea but that did not go down so well and they seemed to try to avoid it when they were eating.

I bet you are wondering why the fennecs have salt on their food, maybe it's a bit bland for them?

Hehe nope, it is actually taurine and calcium which I sprinkle on their food I then mix it in and then it becomes this:

A brown icky mess. . . But they like it so the vomit inducing look of it can be excused.

The Phoenix kits have their food in the same bowls most people use for reptiles as they are shallow but also hold a fair amount. They have a flat base too which means their food is not spilt everywhere when they eat which means I have to clean up after them a little less. . . Only a little though.

PS:

Wesley Kenyon owner of a fennecfoxes.webs.com has decided to attempt to slander my name as I am sure anyone who has ever read his blog or joined his website will know. I am not like him and I know I do not need to go around spouting nonsense to gain friends but anyway here is my side of it all:

http://www.raskbb.com/sybilsden/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=8209

It also has other breeders views on him after he too messed them around.

Fox kits. How cute?!

2011-08-20T20:57:00.000+01:00

So a few days ago I went on an outing with Valla, Sapphire, Sprite and the Phoenix kits to my friend Alice's house for coffee and catching up.
Sprite and Sapphire had an amazing time playing in Alice's garden:

As you can see that Sapphire has her harness on but no lead. This is as she seems perfectly fine in enclosed gardens without either as she cannot climb nor jump very high. She is also quite slow in a straight line due to her legs being pretty short in proportion to her body.

It amazed me how much she has grown in such a short space of time!
This was her on July 16th:

She now dwarfs Valla!

The Phoenix kits also enjoyed their trip but I did not take many photos of them as Alice did not want her photo taken and she was hugging them CONSTANTLY!

Here are some photos of them the night before:

That is Princess behind my Dad's arm. All of the fennec kits adore my Dad but to be fair I have never met an animal that does not like him.

Churchill yawning!

Churchill exploring the play pen.

The playpen they are in is actually for rodents but it is more then big enough for them to play in.

Churchill climbs over giggles as apparently going over is much better then going around. Giggles does not look like he agrees hehe!

Giggles recovering from being trampled by his brother.

There were four in the bag (well carrier) and the little one says 'Where we going?!'.

'Guys! It's not sleepy time!'

It amazes me every day how fast they are growing. It amazed me with Valla too but I have seen these little ones from day 1!

I am currently trying to get them into the idea that the camera is not evil and the litter tray is the place to go to the bathroom. . . We are having more luck with the litter tray then the camera hehe.

About two days ago a lovely play pen arrived for the fennecs which makes it so that I can have the fennecs, Valla and Sapphire in the same room without having to worry that one of the older kits will try to play too rough with them.

Valla loves this new system:

She loves just laying on the top watching them. She comes to get me when they make noise too which is adorable.

She has been playing with them through the mesh on the sides too. Valla will run up and down the room and the kits run up and down their octagon.

Sapphire does not give a damn about the kits, so long as she has someone to play with she is happy.

Harry and Elspeth really like watching them through the baby gate but I know they really are a bit too big to have around them.

Have you ever wondered what four sleeping fennecs looks like?

They look like four little rabbits:

Have you ever wondered what one sleeping fennec looks like?

ADORABLE!:

That is Princess who is the fennec that I am keeping. The thing is I don't know if I should name her Princess. When I hug her and call her Princess I get Valla, Sprite, Sapphire and Elspeth trying to get to me as I call them all my little princesses. . . I had wanted to name her Hatshepsut but that is a bit of a mouth full so then I thought Pharaoh as Hatshepsut was a female Pharaoh but a friend's male fennec is names Pharaoh so it could get confusing when we talk SO I will probably call her something Japanese like Inari and Kitsune I just don't know what!

Here are some random photos of the foxies for you all to enjoy:

Mummy, I am all ears!

2011-08-08T23:41:00.001+01:00

So two days ago the Phoenix kits ears started to rise, then then yesterday they were a little more upright and now one of them has her ears the whole way up and the other 3 are not far behind her!

Little girl last Tuesday 21 days old:

Little girl today at 27 days old:

(She is the one on our left.)

The little guy in the back on the one below is called Churchill, he was 'Grumpy' but now he is not at all grumpy but he just looks like a Churchill.

I am sure when he goes to his forever home his parents will pick a much more adorable name for him but for now Churchill suits him to a tee!

Here is Churchill leading his 'troops' out of bed and to breakfast, the other three follow him everywhere!

Today the kits tried solids for the first time, they had turkey mince (the same sort us humans eat) and Greek yoghurt. They seemed very into the yoghurt but not so much into the mince, I am sure they will like it more when they work out that you eat not walk through it!

At the moment the are sleeping most of the day and all the way through the night which is really good. After walking the 7inches to their yoghurt they were exhausted and went right back to bed once I had burped them and there they fell to sleep for AGES before coming back out to explore and have some milk.

Sapphire, Phoenix kits and more!

2011-08-03T20:43:00.000+01:00

So the other day we decided to take Sapphire out in the garden but once more we decided to go to my other half's parents house as their garden is enclosed.
She seemed to really enjoy the cool morning grass, the sights and the smells. She was quite interested in the pond but it was all green for some reason so I showed her that it was much more fun just to play around on the grass.

It seems to Sapphire that myself and my partner are there for two very different reasons; he is there to provide her with breakfast, and second breakfast and if she makes those puppy eyes third breakfast. I however am there to play games with the most important of which involves her rolling onto her back and whining until I tickle her tummy and then roll her (as she is quite round form all the breakfasts) from side to side telling her she is a little piggy to which she will smile and squeal happily to herself.

I find this all quite odd as normally I am the one our animals see as the cuddly one, not my partner, normally he is the fun one but I must say I quite like being the fun parent!

Now the following photos are far from impressive as I has been rolling around in the grass with Sapphire but this is the happy little Arctic:

Now you see that HUGE smile on her face? Now that is not from catching a mouse or even a butterfly but instead from catching a leaf, a brown (we would later find to be crunchy) leaf.

We made a video too:

Now not everything has been sweetness and light in the land of the Flashman foxes, in fact at one point it was quite worrying;
Our female fennec fox who just 3 weeks ago had a litter of four kits had had enough, she picked up the babies and dumped them all around her bedroom and went to escape from them up a scratching post and would not come down no matter how much they cried for her so we pulled the kits. This was one day before we were advised to do so but they clearly needed someone to feed them as no matter how much Inari put them back into bed she was not going to return.

When we picked them each up they were much more chunky then they had been even days before, I suppose I could see why she had abandoned them; four babies each about half your size draining you of milk 24-7 must have been such hard work. Now that I am the one feeding them I can see how much milk they can get through and how very quickly.

So without further ado here are the Phoenix kits!:

These photos were taken last night when they had one of their night time feedings.

Yesterday morning in the post something, well two things I have been waiting for a while for finally arrived Sapphire's sapphire collar and Valla's ruby collar (I could not very well leave my princess out could I?). Their collars are of coarse not real diamonds or Sapphires or even ruby's but I thought they looked nice and seeing as the girls are foxes they do adore shines!

Sadly Valla's is FAR to big but with any luck she will grow into it in the near future.

Phoenix kits: First photo

2011-07-27T21:56:00.001+01:00

So a few days after my last post our fancy IR nest box camera with sound and all of these other high tech things arrived. I was very excited to give it a try so when I fed the fennecs I set it up.

I tried to put it on the edge of where the kits are and Inari attacked it so then I decided to put it on a tripod away from where they are but looking in. Inari lunged at it allot though could not reach it. He then picked up all of the kits and moved them! I was so worried he was going to kill them so off and away went the camera.

The next morning they were back where they began snuggled up to their Mummy thank goodness! That is my lesson learnt for now, no filming baby fennecs.

So I more or less left them alone for a could of days bar feeding them and checking to make sure they were all okay. They moved the kits from the rabbit hutch to their ferret nation that was in my office before. The doors are always open with ramps attached so they just come and go as they please.

As they did not mind me looking at the kits so long as I left when Inari told me to I decided to take a photo.

You can only see three kits in the photo as the third is below the very harassed mother. For some reason they have shredded a puppy training pad and put it in their bed, if I was them I would have used one of the old towels or blankets as bedding but I think with how often the kits cry for them they must have such little sleep that they just used whatever was closest.

A few days after that I decided to use the super duper fancy camera to film them for a moment. The video is really, really bad but at least you get to see them.

Yesterday they turned 2 weeks old so I decided I would play with them for a little while. Their parents did not seem to mind me picking them up too much. They are so very cute and very. . . chunky shall we say so their mother is doing an amazing job with them! Two of them have started to open their eyes, the other two have not but that is nothing to worry about. It is so hard not to play with them all the time!

I shall try to get some more photos soon.

I have also made the foxes their own website! Please become members and let me know what you think in the guestbook. I shall be attempting to upload all of my photos onto there over the coming weeks.
Here is the link: flashmanfoxes.webs.com

So much can happen in a week!

2011-07-18T19:49:00.004+01:00

This painting is of Freyja and was done by Angelica Yoder:

I think it is so sweet that she painted our princess and surprised me with this. Proof that it is so like her is that the second I saw it I burst out crying.
Last Monday was such a horrid day, I had to go to the vets to collect Freyja's ashes. . . It was hard for me not to exchange harsh words with the receptionist who I collected her from as a few days before she had called me to tell me that they had lost Freyja's body. . . It was hard for me to call up the crematorium to pay the bill. This was the same crematorium that had told me they would not cremate Freyja as she was a fox who had actually collected her from the vets and cremated her even before I had called to enquire about if they would in the first place. . . The vets and the crematorium had made it imposable for me to find out why my baby died when not even a year old as, the vet had not carried out the autopsy yet and had made it imposable to warn the owners of Freyjas brothers and sisters what to look out for to prevent them having the same heart ache, sense of bewilderment and emptiness I now feel as happens when you loose a family member. ( Laura, Mary and Amber thank you for being there for me to spill me feelings out to during all of this. It means so much to me that you guys put up with me. I would also like to thank everyone who sent their condolences it is nice to know so many people care.)

That same Monday when I got home with Freyja's tiny casket that I had ran my fingers over the whole way home I had no idea where to put her. I thought maybe on my partners desk where she liked to climb but then thought this would make him even more upset. I thought of my desk and came to the same conclusion and so I decided that I would place her on the fireplace which is where she is now.

Next I had poor little Valla to deal with who had no idea where her sister had gone. She just seemed to feel quite abandoned. She would not eat unless fed little by little when on my lap, she would not drink at all so we put her back on her baby bottle and she would not sleep until she was exhausted from looking, calling and crying for Freyja. Valla did not seem to want to go on without her friend. . .

Valla started to have little bouts of playfulness with Sprite the papillon but Sprite was not too keen. I suppose a little fox trying to kiss you on the lips so a little odd.

Valla would try and try to get Sprite to play her games but Sprite did not see why Valla kept throwing the tennis ball at her and Valla did not see why Sprite would not throw it back. Valla would try to snuggle atop Sprite and Sprite did not understand why Valla thought she was a blanket. Though Sprite was okay to play with now and then the differences in how foxes play verses how dogs play became apparent and every time Valla's attempts to play fox games with Sprite failed she would go back into her slump. We knew then that Valla needed a friend to get through this.

Before Freyja passed we had reserved an Arctic fox kit. We had thought it was far too soon to get another fox and that it would be like we were trying to replace Freyja but then when we noticed how Valla was we knew we had to get her this new little friend. Sapphire is in no way, shape or form a replacement for Freyja but she is a friend for Valla, A friend who has her eating, drinking and playing like any little fox should.

On Friday the second we walked in the door with Sapphire Valla was oh so excited. She could smell another fox on us and wanted to see who! We placed Sapphire on the floor and Valla walked up to her and licked her on the nose and the two of them instantly started to play with each other. This was what our baby girl needed, a friend.

On Sunday we went to the Exotic pet awareness day at the Ark in Evesham, Worcestershire. We had been planning to go to this event for many months and had planned to take Harry, Elspeth, Valla, Freya and the fennecs along to meet their adoring fans. More and more my display was shrinking; first we lost Freyja and then we found out we could not bring the fennecs.

Why could we not bring the fennecs? You must be wondering if some horrid fate befell them but no, quite the opposite actually.

The Monday that I brought Freyja's ashes home was very hard for all of us so to try to get our minds off it my partner and I stayed up quite late watching movies. We figured that if we were exhausted we might actually sleep and not just lay there thinking and crying. On our way to bed we fed all the animals the last stop being the fennecs bedroom. I went in juggling bowls of food, water and morio worms and making quite a racket! When I got to where I normally place them and put them down I heard squeaking. . . This squeaking was coming from Inari's house which is a rabbit hutch with the mesh door removed and the other left on. I went to inspect. Upon lifting the lid/roof I saw what was making the squeaking, two tiny little red fennecs were in there with the adults! I fell backwards landing on their sandy floor. For the first time in days I was smiling which is something I felt like I would never do again.

I quickly left the room being as quiet as I could. I got to my other half and told him the news. He too smiled and we quickly went to our room so my frantic squeaking did not disturb them.

Though it was all very good I got so worried about them as they were crying nearly all the time so I feared that their Mummy had no milk, I worried she had abandoned them, I worried when they were finally quiet that she had killed them. It was so worrying! I am glad it has given me something to keep my mind on other then dwelling on Freyja.

I think I drove my friend Mandy who has bred fennecs before mad with all of my questions but I am so very glad she was there for me to guide me through it all.

On Thursday I checked on them again. Imagine my shock when the two fennec kits that I had seen had somehow become 4! There were three little ones and one very big one! They all seemed to be getting milk and all were so very beautiful with their downy blonde fur. I think when I saw the two tiny ones she must have still been in labour, man do I feel bad for disturbing her!

Today I looked at them and they have more fur then before and their eyes are not yet open, they are so wonderful. We have dubbed them the phoenix kits as they were born when Freyja's ashes came home, they brought light to my otherwise broken heart. Though we are not yet out of the woods I am so very hopeful that they make it!

Anyway back to Sunday.

On the morning of the event I had everyone in their travel crates now I thought just to play tetris on a large scale in the car. I loaded the tables, gazebo, posters and such in the car first followed by Valla, Sapphire and then Harry and Elspeth. . . Or at least half of Harry and Elspeth's crate. It seemed no matter how hard I tried that I had a choice to make to take either Harry and Elspeth OR Valla and Sapphire. I decided on Valla and Sapphire as then I had two species of fox and not just the one. Harry and Elspeth looked quite happy to be put back into the house away from the light rain and those damn birds which do that flying thing that they both hate.

When we got to the event we set up our gazebo and sorted out the tables. A friend of mine lent me her silver fox as well for the display so I sorted out a crate for her and it all looked quite nice.

The day was going very well until the wind picked up and the gazebo tried to fly away despite having gazebo feet which were meant to weigh it down. Valla is now at the age where she is worried by birds as all corsacs are instinctively and was the only fox awake to see the gazebo try to fly away. . . All three times! I sent my other half to the camping shop on site to get some things to anchor us down and once we had the new guy ropes (?) and tent pegs the gazebo was going nowhere! (I would like to thank everyone who helped me hold down the gazebo. Without you it may have flown over the fence like some of the others.)

The girls were filmed by both the BBC and ITV and will be on T.V. in October! Sapphire was a bit naughty for the ITV man as she pooped on his pristine white backdrop. . . Well she is only a baby. She also would not walk across it and decided just to sit on it or sleep on it hehe.

I take my hat off to those who organized the event, it was a great day out and we look forward to next year, if you will have us back.

Flashman foxes gazebo

Valla in her travel crate below the corsac fox info poster.

The'rental' silver fox in a travel crate sleeping below the red fox poster.

Sapphire in her travel crate below the Arctic fox info poster.

Valla. Very awake and very worried the gazebo was going to take off again!

Sapphire still sleeping as she did the for most of the day.

Flashman foxes goodies and the stand in fennec fox (which looks nothing like a fennec)

Stand in fennec guarding the birth anouncement

Flashman foxes goodies

The Flashman foxes banner

Princess Freyja

2011-07-07T21:35:00.000+01:00

I never thought I would ever have to write something like this, well I knew I would some day but I expected that to be in 15 years or so but here I am crying all over my keyboard typing that our poor baby Freyja has crossed the rainbow bridge. . .

I still do not feel like it has happened, but yet I do in that my heart is broken. Yesterday was like any other day until 1:03am when Freyja who was sleeping on the sofa started to have a fit, not 20 minuets prior to this she was playing with her little sister Valla and everything was fine. . .

She was laying next to her Daddy at the time who at first thought she was twitching in her sleep but the twitching got worse and worse very quickly until she was having a full blown fit. We held her still. I could not stop crying (you all see why I am not a vet now) where my other half was strong and remained calm. I called the emergency vets who agreed to see her. I got Audrey dressed and out of bed and off we went to the vets. By time we got there it was 1:15am and she was still fitting. . .

The vet took her into the treatment room, my partner and I went with her. Not long after that she had a final spasm abut she did not come back to us, she remained floppy and lifeless bar that she was breathing. The vet checked her eyes and everything to see if there was any brain function, there was not. . . We waited a while and the vet tried various things to bring her round and nothing was working. . . Not long after that the vet told us that the only thing we could do would be to have her put to sleep as Freyja was no longer with us, she left for the rainbow bridge however her basic functions were unaware of this. . .

Freyja's daddy could not cope with it when they took her collar off which we had put on her the first day she came home and left the room. I stayed as I felt she wanted me there. I hugged her and told her how much we all love her as she drifted off. . .

It started to rain the second I walked into the reception to tell my other half it was over. . . Audrey said the angles were crying.

I have no idea what happened to trigger this attack. She was sleeping like such a good girl when it all happened. . .

When we came home and got Valla out of her crate she ran around looking for her friend. I think to some extent she blames me as she sat down the hall from me when I was holding Freyja while she was fitting. When I looked at her she ran away.

Valla is still looking for her sister, she calls for her and gets no reply. Harry, Elspeth and Rudi know something is wrong but I suppose my partner and I not being able to stop crying gives that one away. I wish I could explain it to them but I know it would still hurt them if I could as it hurts me.

This whole post is just such a big mess. . . I just thought I should tell everyone now and not when you all enquire about how she is. It would also be silly for me to pick a wound which I hope will heal with time though I never take deaths of animals well. . .

Here are the last photos of our baby who we often referred to as 'the black barron' who would have epic battles over socks with 'the blonde barron' being Valla.

I hope she know show much we love her and that we will never, ever stop loving her. Daddy's little Frey-tot. . .

Sit!

2011-06-25T19:19:00.000+01:00

I am so proud right now, I never thought they would do it but they did and they keep on doing it; Valla and Freyja can now sit on command!

To the dog owners out there this is nothing special, sit takes a matter or minuets to master but for a fox kit, no two fox kits to learn this together in the space of time it takes a dog to learn it is just amazing when normally if the two of them are in a room together they resemble speedy Gonzalez and the roadrunner running round the room and will not listen to a word I say.

The two of them seemed quite into learning once they found out food was involved so I continued teaching them and now they know sit, paw and lay down!

For sit I pointed at their tails which was funny as it made them sit as they did not want me to point at their tails. For lay down I got them to sit then follow the treat to the floor and for paw they did what Sprite was doing as they saw she was getting goodies and they wanted some.

I shall try to film it at some point. I tried on Thursday but filming using a camera phone totally failed.

I do not imagine them taking up agility lessons but I do like getting them to work for their treats. In theory it should make taking photos of them easier. . . Maybe hehe!

Now things I have missed as I have been so busy. . .

On June 17th Valla and Freyja went to get their second lot of shots (distemper and parvo). They were very brave little tots I was so proud of them. Valla being the smarter of the two saw the needle and snuggled her face into my neck. I think she knew there was no getting out of it the same as the time before. Freyja seemed to have no idea what was going on, just that she was having a nice hug and then her back felt funny hehe.

After the vets we went to meet some friends of lunch which was very fun, we had a great time! (Thank you Laura, David and Ken!) and we got to meet one of their prairie dogs named Trigger who was SO tiny and adorable! They got to meet Freyja and Valla. Valla did not seem very into standing in a car park though as the cars worried her but Freyja really seemed to like hugging Laura hehe.

Needless to say the kits were warn out after their busy day:

(Valla had not agreed to being a pillow hehe).
I am now aware none of my photos of Valla give you any idea how tiny she is so I found something she would not walk off with and took a photo, I give you Valla on a sofa hehe:

And Valla with a camera:

Valla is very proud of herself now that she can fit a mini Kong tennis ball in her mouth hehe. She kicked them along before but now she can actually run with one in her mouth so no one else can have it so she is a happy kit.

The two little kits managed to totally maul Valla's cuddly kitty toy which was quite shocking. Valla becomes more like Elspeth every day. Elspeth always chews the legs off her toys and now Valla does the same. Freyja liked removing ears for some reason. . . Hey whatever keeps them happy.

Even poor Eeyore has been attacked!

He really has lost his tail now. . .
Every day Freyja gets more and more white, well silver. It is amazing how much she has grown, she is now bigger then Sprite the papillon! She is also sometimes too rough for Valla to play with. Valla will now often sit on my knee and watch Freyja play as she knows if Freyja has just woken up she is just too rough.

Harry has been quite the parrot as of late which is odd as he hated parrots hehe. I was walking along the hall and heard what sounded like Freyja calling. She has a very individual way to call Valla and her humans. I followed the sound and found Harry stood in the hall! I think he was seeing if it would work the other way around and Freyja would come running. It was so odd. . . None of the corsacs normally make that sound. . . Valla has been doing similar and trying out barking like Sprite but it sounds so funny I cannot help but laugh!

The other day a parcel arrived for Harry, Elspeth and Audrey from some friends in the US. (Thank you Nikky, Bryan and Bella the swift fox!). I was trying to take photos of Audrey with her gifts and suddenly Freyja was on her lap. I decided to just keep clicking hehe:

Over the last few days everything for the Ark exotics day has arrived! My gazebo, tables, metal crates for the foxes and weights for the gazebo so it does not blow away (Imagine Harry's face if it did! There might be birds!!). There is still more to come but it feels it is all taking shape.

I very much look forward to seeing some of you there!

Outside, the movie!

2011-06-06T19:14:00.001+01:00

As promised here is a video of the kit's adventures in the garden.

I combined all of the footage into one video so as not to spam youtube with videos that all look alike.

Pretty sure their harnesses fit well now so I may take them out in the grounds of my parents house, we shall see. As you can hear in the video I am getting a new sink, this is as now there are builders, not just messy decorators doing stuff where I live as apparently there was something wrong with a wall. Now how can a wall make it so I need a new sink you ask . . . Well that was a decourater STANDING' in the sink, yes a fully grown man STANDING in a SINK! *sigh*

Here is a photo of me hugging Freyja. She was asleep until the flash woke her hence she looks a bit. . . unhappy. Memo to self: turn the camera's flash off prior to photographing the foxlings.