I knew it would just be a matter of time before one of the family of 5 foxes that was around earlier in spring would give me gray hairs! The last 2 evenings there has been a young one getting uncomfortably close to my free-rangers. 2 evenings ago- at 5:30 in the evening - we heard the telltale "yipe" coming from our backyard. I ran to the door to see our cat staring off a young fox about 15 yards away from him. (Our cat - half indoor & half outdoor - is pretty gutsy, so I give him credit for saving the chickens that night. Ironically, his name is "Killer"
) Anyway, I got the .22 and took a shot at the fox on the run about 40 yards away....if anything, I thought I gave it a scare, but DH thought I may have hit it. So last night, after running some errands, we got home around 6:30 and within minutes the fox had emerged from the area he had retreated to the night before. I had the gun in my hand & was stationed on the deck within seconds. I got one good shot at him well over 50 yards away, went to take another shot and the gun was jammed
Meanwhile, the chickens were having a fit about 150 yards in the opposite direction - fearing another fox was on them, I think I threw the gun at DH to fix and went running (with a sick feeling in my stomach) to the girls. With the help of the kids, we got them in the coop...all present and accounted for...WHEW!!!! Went back to find DH holding the split shell casing that caused the gun to jam. He had filled 2 clips for me and made sure the gun was functioning so I'd be ready next time...which better be the last time for that fox! Gotta work on honing in on moving targets!
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