Bless the Beasts and the Children.

 We went up and did some work on the new house. Not a lot. Not the heavy stuff. It is way too hot and humid for that. We were gratified to see that the mud dried up quite a bit over night. 

Tomorrow morning, I'm driving Mattie and the new baby to see a pediatrician about 45 minutes from here. The baby is quite a screamer, and Mattie is concerned because he does not seem to be gaining weight as he should. She's supplementing with formula as suggested by their doctor, but little David screams on. Mattie is worried. 

So I won't be at the build site tomorrow morning. I'll be driving Mattie. I told Tim that I'd hurry as much as possible. Mattie makes the most of having someone to drive her, and I can guarantee you that there will be a stop at a grocery warehouse and probably Walmart on the way back home. Tim said, "Don't you hurry her. Where ever she needs to go, you take her. We are in their debt." 

Tim believes quite strongly that we owe them a great deal. Without their behind the scenes work, we would have never been introduced to Carrot Top. We've been trying to line up a concrete guy for a long time. They are booked so far ahead that they don't even return your phone call. To be introduced to a guy who could not only do it, but do it right away was miraculous.  

We were driving back from the build, and both of us were hot and sweaty. The windows were down and the breeze was a blessing. 

I caught sight of something in a field. My first thought was a woodchuck, but it was an odd color. When it moved, I could see that it was long legged. 

"What is that?" I asked Tim. I watched it walking very slowly. 

He muttered 'Where?" and "I don't see anything." 

I said, "Stop the car. Pull off right here and look." 

He did. I pointed it out to him once again. "That is NOT a woodchuck..." 

He drove along the field to get a closer look. "No. It is not." It stopped turned in a circle twice and wearily lay down right there in the field. Tim said, "That's a fox."

I said, "How tiny it is!" We pondered what could be wrong. It could be too young to be on its own, too young to hunt.  It could be sick with parasites. It could have rabies. We couldn't be sure, but it definitely had a problem. We sat in the car watching it. 

I wished out loud that we had something to feed it, and just that quickly, we were headed to the nearest gas station, where we bought a package of hot dogs. We made our way back. He watched us warily and scooted under a chain link fence. Maintaining a distance between us was relatively normal behavior, which made me a bit less worried about rabies. We slit open the package of hotdogs and took two out. When he saw me walking towards the fence, he hid, quick as a wink. I tossed the hotdogs over the fence and went back to the car where we watched to see what would happen next. 

He came out cautiously and we could see his nose twitching. He headed straight for the hotdogs, nabbing one and trotting back to his hiding place. No limping, no signs of injury. That made me feel better too. Tim said, "Well, he's got a good sense of smell. That is a good sign."

We went out for groceries this afternoon. We stopped in front of the pet food. "Do you think we should pick up something for that little fox?" Tim thought we should. I picked up a few cans of catfood, the regular size cans, not the dainty morsels in small packages like Mangey and Houdini eat for their evening treats. Tim said, "Grab a box of those dog biscuits too." 

I mixed the cat food up with a bit of medicine to treat external and internal parasites. (It can be assumed that they have them, from my reading.) We drove back in the cool of the evening to where we saw him hiding. I took the lid off the bowl and slid it under the fence where he had gone when we first saw him earlier that day. I tossed two dog biscuits over for him as well. 

We are very curious to see what happens next.