The Fox's Tale

By William Edgar

 red wine

    Let me introduce myself my name is Frederick Fox and I live in a hole in the ground with my wife Freda, my two daughters Fee and Fan and my son Foxy. I had another son Felix who was murdered by the fox hounds it was the most horrible day of my life.

    I spend all of my time trying to feed myself and my family. I catch rabbits and a few crows and just about anything we can eat. I sometimes steal a chicken from a farmyard or even a lamb if I can get one but you have to know the tricks. One trick I have is watch a mother sheep give birth to a lamb and if she starts giving birth to a second lamb grab the first one when she is not looking. New born lamb is very tasty and the farmer does not know if there ever were two lambs.

    My biggest enemy is the fox hounds it was supposed to be banned but it never stopped. The leader of the fox hounds is a fat farmer and I do not like him. When they killed my son Felix he cut off his tail and held it up in his hand and all the other blood thirsty hunters cheered. It was horrible the most disgusting thing that I have ever seen. I do not like the hunt and I do not like the fat farmer. I wish I could put a dozen mice in the fat farmers bed.

    One night I went to the fat farmers farm to get a chicken and a dog started to bark and the next thing I knew the fat farmer opened a door and let about twenty blood hounds after me. I had to run for my life they were on my tail howling as they chased me and I very luckily ran into a ditch that had flowing water running down it. The good thing about a ditch that is running water is that the hounds can not follow your scent in water so I got away and the hounds stopped and then the fat farmer blew his horn to tell the hounds to go home.

    I don't know why human beings hunt us foxes we don't we just feed our families it is not stealing when it is necessary and I don't understand human beings they have a thing called money it looks like litter and they are prepared to fight each other and kill each other to get it. Where is the sense in that? 

    About two weeks ago I could hear the hunt in a wood not far from where I live so I thought if the fat farmer was with the hunt it would be a good time for me to go to his farm farm and bag myself a couple of his chickens so I told Freda and the cubs where I was going and they said not to go but I said I was going ant they told me to be careful and I went to the fat farmers farm and saw some lovely white lambs in a field but they were to big for me to catch and carry so I got myself two chickens when fatty was away and they tasted very nice. Should I say thank you fatty I don't think so.

    That evening after we had eaten Fee said she could hear some guns going bang not far from our den. We went to investigate and the fat farmer and another man were shooting ducks with a big black dog running and getting them after they were shot. There were two ducks fell out of the sky not far from Fee and me and as the black dog was getting one duck Fee ran out and got the other one. I told Fee she should not have ran out like that because if they had seen her they would have shot her. Fee laughed and said they didn't see her so we lay down low under the bush and watched and then the black dog looked at us and barked and the fat farmer fired his gun into the bush above our heads and scared the living daylights out of us both so we made a run for it taking the duck that Fee got with us.

    A week ago I was looking for food and as I went through a gateway I got a shock to see about a dozen fox hounds straight in front of me. I turned and ran and the hounds saw me and chased after me. I ran onto a track and there was another dozen fox hounds there so I had to turn up a hill and head for the village. Both groups of hounds were running after me and I was running for my life and as I got to the houses there was a long wall in front of me. I thought it was my dying day and then a dear old lady opened a door in the wall and shouted this way mister fox. I ran through the doorway and the dear old lady closed the door behind me. The hounds were howling as I ran away up the road. That was close I thought my time had come and I bet the fat farmer was angry that I got away it is my dread that someday he will cut my tail off and hold it high and get cheered by his blood thirsty fellow hunts men.

    When I got back home Fee said that when the fat farmer was chasing me she went to his place and caught his big fat rooster and we all had a good supper that night and then cuddled up together for a good nights sleep and Fee started to laugh and I said why are you laughing and she said wouldn't it be funny if fatty was going to have that rooster for his Christmas dinner and we all laughed and had a good nights sleep.