El Chupacabra!

Air temps at 67 degrees F, winds around 12 mph at Noon today (11-01-11).  Too nice to pass up, so I went fishing during lunch today.
I just went to a local pond I felt would be fairly easy to fish given the wind was blowing from the South.
I arrived at the pond, finished the few remaining mouthfuls of my healthy lunch, grabbed my fly rod and fanny pack of gear and headed for the water.

I noticed a fox walking along the nearest shoreline, and he was being paralleled by a group of ducks who were on the water quacking at the fox.

At first I thought the fox must have just gotten out of the water, as he was looking rather "thin".  But, after getting a better look, the fox had other health issues.  Possibly mange, possibly malnutrition or old age, it also didn't seem to want to open its eyes much...who knows.  He sort of "froze" when he became aware of my presence...I also froze, while I slowly reached around to my fanny pack to get my camera.  I snapped the two pictures you see in this blog.  I then gave the fox a wide berth, since it looked like it possibly could have been rabid.  I got beyond it and walked down to the water and began fishing, while the fox laid down in a dip along the shoreline and tried to look inconspicuous.

I missed a number of hits, and landed 4 bluegills.  The last one I caught as I was walking back towards the car, and was only maybe 40' away from the fox.  I felt sorry for it...it looked hungry.  So, I tossed the bluegill towards the fox, and it landed about 10' away and uphill from the fox.  It flopped around a bit.

A City park maintenance employee stopped by to see the fox.  He said they had seen it around off and on for quite some time.  He didn't know what was wrong with it.  He said he called an expert to describe what he had seen...he didn't want a rabid animal around since so many kids use the athletic fields surrounding the entire area.  Apparently there are 2 types of rabies, the familiar one that makes animals very aggressive, and one that makes them lazy.  The "expert" didn't think this fox had either type of rabies.  The maintenance guy said they had gotten really close to the fox, but it had never attacked.  We watched it briefly, then we both went on our way.

When I got near my car, I turned back to look, and the fox had gotten to its feet, had located the bluegill I'd tossed near it, and it grabbed it and began trying to eat it.

I felt good about that.  Maybe that bluegill would stave off the foxes hunger for a little longer.  And then I thought... maybe fish spines or bones will get caught in its throat and it will choke and die!  All because of me! :o(

I can't control what happens, but at least the fox might be happy for a little while today.