Urban Grey Foxes, Santa Rosa, CA

Have you ever awakened in the night to strange sounds outside your bedroom window? I have and I investigated. We live in the city limits of Santa Rosa so I was surprised to discover how much animal night-life goes on in our yard in the wee hours. On one occasion it was a family of raccoons in our fig tree. I thought they only came for the figs once a year, but as it turns out they seem to make nightly excursions through our yard.  Likewise with the skunk who only occasionally will nearly drive us out of the house with its odiferous discharge. Much less noticeable are the possums who are seemingly frequent but not particularly regular visitors and no apparent trouble at all. My favorites though are the grey foxes. I like to call them urban foxes as they have definitely adjusted to city life.

You might wonder how I know of these visitations. Well, a few years ago we had an outdoor cat. Outdoor cats are fed outside. Having my curiosity peeked by the raccoons in the fig tree, I decided to deploy my nighttime infrared motion activated trail camera to see what was going on at the cats dish while we slept. The neighbor's cat visited, as did a skunk, a possum, raccoons and, yes, grey foxes.

 
At the next door neighbor's house, behind a tree.  You would expect foxes to be hiding like this, but this one was not particularly disturbed by being seen or photographed.  I though urban foxes like this grey fox were strictly nocturnal, but this one was comfortable enough to be out in the open in daylight.

As it turned out we had a family of foxes who had taken up residence under our deck. There were three kits (young foxes) and judging from the nighttime video footage I took they played like little puppies for hours at a time during the night. Every now and then they would come up from under the deck during the day and check things out. And occasionally nap on the chairs under the table.

These pictures were taken in June so it was nice and warm on the deck. This little fella seems completely at home on the chair under the table.
I was surprised at how active the kits were during the day. They would come up from under the deck, emerging from the shrubs, hang out, sleep, and play a bit (but not as much play as in the night). They were a real joy to watch and we felt privileged to have them make our yard their home. The only downside that I have found with having foxes in the yard is the fleas. Because they lounged on the chairs they would leave fleas for the next person who sat in that chair.

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