KITS (I love that word!)

For years, I've hoped my reputation and connections as a wildlife photographer/videographer would yield a fox or coyote family, rearing their young in full view of someone's family room window - making it a slam dunk photo-op. I know those situations occur, it's just a matter of timing and being informed.

A couple weeks ago, it finally came to be. 

I got a call from a woman who somehow knew my work and described a perfect scenario unfolding in her and her husband's backyard: a family of fox was denning under the couple's shed, only twenty yards from their back window. The kits would regularly come out to play around the shed and a nearby woodpile. In fact, weeks ago, when the kits were still weaning, they would suckle on the mama right on top of the woodpile, in full view of the couple watching inside.

Always a little skeptical, I followed up on an offer to photograph them. I arrived at their house, got out of my car, walked 10 feet, looked to my left, and low-and-behold, there was one of the kits, right next to the shed looking up at me! That was easy. He darted away - and so did I, only to return in full camo for a really fruitful, and easy, photo session.

That encounter ended an incredibly long, personal drought on red-fox for me. I hadn't seen a fox since I was filming my urban wildlife documentary, ANIMALS AMONG US, back in 2004 through 2006. That means I hadn't seen a red-fox for roughly 6 or 8 years! Finally........let it rain fox!