Well…

As expected, people start to ask about what happened with Dasha – and sadly, I have to inform you that she's no longer with me. She's not dead or something (at least I hope she's not!). But I have to go deeper into that. It isn't sufficient to simply say "she's gone" because that explains nothing! I want you to actually understand what happened and why it is that way. To be honest, I saw that coming basically from the beginning. It was just a matter of time until it happens. The weird thing is: I would do it again if I ever get another fox! Now you ask yourself if I'm completely out of my mind?! Actually quite the opposite. For a very simple reason: Dasha and her foxy needs had TOP priority over everything! I never ever restrict her in any way and certainly will never force her to do anything she doesn't want – especially (!) not living inside the house 24/7. Easy as that. Every reasonable fox owner must follow that simple rule. And when I see people in forums opening up a separate thread in which they discuss certain methods of punishing (!) their foxes – that's just abnormal and sick! It shows that they have zero respect for the animal and want to force it into their damn lives instead of accepting the fox' habits.

First of all, she was not taken away from me or killed by someone or anything like that. There never was a reason for that. Neither was it illegal nor had people in the neighborhood any problems with her. Some neighbors were even proud and happy to have her around. That she's gone now is purely my "fault" … that's the wrong word. It was actually a decision and not an accident. But let's start from the beginning:


Her affection towards people
From the beginning, Dasha had problems with male people, including me. I remember exactly the first 3 days she spent here, where she was scared to death when I entered the room. That's no overstatement. She would rather jump down into a bottomless pit than accepting my presence. The poor thing literally peed her pants when I approached her the first time to take the food bowel to refill it. Luckily, she became more and more used to me and other people up to a point where she accepted everyone and was always happy to see new people. But still, she never overcame her touch phobia, which was still present when I last saw her. And she makes no difference between man and woman. She hates being touched most of the time, especially on her back and her hind legs. A few videos of her seem to prove otherwise but those are VERY rare exceptions. And picking her up to hold her is and always was absolutely impossible!


Walking on a leash
The whole time I had her (15 months) I was completely unable to get her used to a leash. A direct consequence of the above mentioned touch phobia. We tried it a dozen times and she freaked out so badly, screaming like she would DIE at any moment! I cannot stand an animal suffering so I cancelled that. Also, when we finally put a harness on her, she hated everyone of us until we freed her from it, which was a nightmare because, again, she was fighting very badly against it. But going on daily walks with her was a central element when I planned everything. I considered that the most important part of her life and JUST THAT was impossible because she never accepted the leash! Very unfortunate. I wasn't very happy about that because it was not my intention to keep her inside the enclosure her entire life.


The concept of getting a fox from the Novosibirsk farm
Normally, you have to get a fox as soon as possible to make sure he/she bonds with you and to get him/her used to being touched by humans (including walking on a leash). All of that did not happen with Dasha for 2 reasons: First, I was too late to the party when I contacted the farm. Dasha was already > 3 months old when I inquired. Way too late to get her used to anything. Then, even if the farm is informed that you want to by a fox, it does not mean they interact with her DAILY, which is an absolute must! I have zero proof but from her general behavior I suspect she was left alone in her damn cage until Mitch (the importer) picked her up and finally freed her. They might had her out a few times but that wasn't enough to get her used to anything. To make things worse, due to paranoid German rabies laws, she was already 8 months old when I got her. Way too old.

I can't and won't blame the farm of course. Up to that point, these foxes were not supposed to be sold to private owners and the new idea of distributing them was just a few months old, so nothing was planned and the institute was basically not prepared for that. In retrospective, a future fox owner has to inform the institute very early about the purchase, way before the fox is born so they can immediately start to socialize him/her.

I watched videos of Anya (the fox of Kay Fedewa) and was blown away. I thought all of these foxes would behave like that but NO. The big surprise came when I first got Dasha and compared her to Anya. The behavioral difference was extreme. Dasha was NOTHING like the other foxes I saw. She was even worse than ordinary farm foxes. At first, it seemed like a HUGE ripoff! But wait. Over time, Dasha improved remarkably. Anya was a pretty bad comparison as I found out later! She was not like that out of the box but instead was trained for almost a year before Kay got her. This explained everything. Anya could be walked on a leash right from the start, something that is not even remotely possible with Dasha.


The enclosure and its surroundings
Over time, she became more and more unsatisfied with her enclosure and being kept inside it. Her enclosure and how it's arranged/placed on our property played a big role in how things developed. It's open on 3 of 4 sides. She has a wonderful view over the surrounding landscape – BUT that also made her more and more angry that she cannot be out there. Whenever we went into the garden, she had to watch us from the distance. Very bad! Then, one of the neighbors started to call her name and even brought her some liver to eat. That was the next huge mistake. She can see very far from her enclosure, especially when climbing up onto her many platforms. There are thousands of impressions out there that stream right into her brain. How can we even assume she WANTS to be kept inside the damn enclosure at the same time?! That's just stupid.

I want to add that her enclosure was actually pretty advanced when I compare it to others. She could do absolutely anything in there, even digging as she pleases. It was laid out in a way that she could dig 2 meters deep. She also had an indoor area. The enclosure itself was not the problem. She never was supposed to be an indoor fox because that's not how a fox wants to live. And she proved that I was right with that assumption more than once. She always wanted to be outside – no matter what.


The first escape
I had that fear circling my head basically since the beginning, that she will escape someday, simply because it cannot go on forever like this – keeping her inside her entire life. The enclosure was not closed at the top and I knew that she will climb up eventually. But she never did, mostly because she is afraid of unstable things like swinging/wobbling chain link fence. Technically she could but she was too scared to climb up. It was the 15th of July 2013 when I was about to make her enclosure twice the size when she escaped through the chain link fence that I temporarily had to make a little "weak". It was a shock but also the most awesome thing in my life because I could spend roughly an hour in the woods with her, turning the accident into an opportunity. That was the only time that I actively went out to seek for her. On all the following escapes I simply waited for her to come back – and astoundingly, she always did!


Over one month of "controlled freedom"
There were a few more escapes between July and December of 2013. At one point she went away for over 3 days and still came back. I even replaced the chain link fence with welded steel fencing to make the whole enclosure more fox-proof but it made thinks worse than ever before. Now she climbed the fence as if it was a ladder! She was even brave enough to jump down on the other side from more than 2 meters height! I finally decided to let her go on purpose on December 31st. Her outbreak attempts increased in violence and I had no other choice. She started to scratch on the fence in the evening, sometimes as early as 7:00 PM, sometimes not before 11:00 PM but always in a trance-like state, as if she was loosing her mind. At that point, there was no way that I could hold her back any longer. She always wanted to be outside, that’s completely out of question. I've cut a few bars out of the welded fence for her to leave.

From that time on, she had the opportunity to roam around completely free outside EVERY night for over a month. She always came back early in the morning, around 5:00 AM to eat and spent the rest of the day inside the enclosure as if nothing happened. I even went out with her sometimes to go for the most awesome nightly walks I ever experienced in my whole life! Words can actually not describe how it feels to play with your wonderful fox outside, completely free without harness or other crap on. It was just … WOW!!! And Dasha was even more happy than me. I never saw her playing so joyful. So freaking AWESOME. It was blowing my (childhood) dreams right out of the water. Can you believe that?! The real thing was more intense than anything I could have imagined.


No return
Ironically, it was Valentine's day when I last saw my little sunshine. She was seen a few times by other people and now seems to live in an area roughly 300 meters from here because someone spotted her there frequently. That place is actually quite nice for a fox to be. Silent, no hunters, much green, shadowy places, light places, fields, trees, not much people around but still close enough to humans to find something to eat, especially cat's food.

Another thing to note is that she actually can survive out there on her own. At first I thought that she would never be able to do that but that's plain wrong. I saw her catching mice with my own eyes! Why wouldn't she? Cats are domesticated for thousands of years and still catch mice. Why should a fox suddenly lack that ability? Makes no sense.

And concerning the money: Yes, even though those foxes are totally overpriced and basically rip your wallet to pieces, it does NOT entitle you to treat the fox like a thing with no needs. Please do NEVER forget it's still a living, feeling animal! It's the animal that counts, not the damn money. As I said in some other comment somewhere: It's always risky to own a fox and the home enclosure does not necessarily mean a safe spot. Neighbors can always poison your fox and whatnot. And I read lots of stories about foxes that were euthanized just because some asshole had a problem with it and called the authorities. How do you argue then? You still paid a fortune – the fox is dead either way. I rather let her go with the hope she's still alive than having some cop bringing the harness of my fox to the front door along with the message he/she's f****g dead!

That's all for now. Maybe I see her again some day. Who knows. There's still a small chance…