No, certainly not me, but a real fox went across our front yard a few minutes ago. Last one I saw was several years ago down our road standing right in the middle. This guy was trotting across in front of wife's Lilac bushes, then he went into the drive, and across the road into the power line. Might be what the dogs have been sniffin'. Looked to be about 40-45 lbs. (slightly bigger than our newish puppy).
Assuming a red fox? They are nifty critters! The coolest and luckiest time I saw a grey fox in my backyard was one that my dogs alerted me to. I looked and didn't see anything so I let them out they went attack mode and out from the garden it ran. Coyote sized.
Every now and then I spot them sneaking around at night. If you see them in the open during the day there is a very high risk it has rabies.
We quite often see them around here. Yes, it is possible that they could be rabid if seen during the day, but unlikely. They often hunt during the day, especially the Vixens when they have a litter. The pretext of rabid foxes being seen in the daytime stems from the likelihood of seeing one infected in more populated areas such as neighborhoods or built-up areas. Healthy foxes tend to be elusive and generally populate desolate areas. As well, often times they are pegged as being rabid but in fact are actually suffering from distemper. Either way, if you see one that is acting strangely or is looking sickly, gave it a wide berth and contact the proper authorities.
We have a female with a den in a hill on our farm for the past 4 years or so that we are aware of. She doesn't bother our chickens or cats, when I clean fish I take the scraps over to her hill along with other things from time to time. Neat to see them playing and hear all of the vocals they use. My dad used to dig out fox dens and keep a pup as a pet when he was many moons younger (65 years ago). He has pictures of a couple males he had that rode in his car with him.
At 40-50 lbs....wasn't a red fox! We have one that makes it's rounds during the night hours. Always see it's tracks in the snow almost every morning. Had 3 or 4 of them one winter outside the bedroom window...talk about noise!
Its fun to see them, but they never let me get really close. I have a few living on my property. The guy below gets photographed regularly by my trail cam. Trail cam picks this one up with a squirrel in his mouth a couple times.
Was gone for a bit, and when I got home my wife told me she saw him/her again over in the power line field. Dogs were goin' a little crazy, so it took off. She didn't let 'em out at the time. She noticed this. Aaaand, she said it wasn't much bigger than our puppy (which is about 30 lbs.).
