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Sure no fox hound!!!

L

Liberty Belle

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 10, 2005
Messages
1,818
Location
northwestern South Dakota
Gather round y'all, I got sumthin' to tell you.

Murphy and I went out for our daily meander around the hills above the ranch buildings this evening and I saw one of the strangest things I've seen in a long, long time.

Murphy is a border collie. He's a full grown intact male. Although he's crippled in one back leg from one of the many times he's been run over, he's bigger than a lot of border collies and really agile. He chases every fox and coyote he sees.

Murphy goes with me on these hikes because he likes to pack a rock to lay in the road ahead of me so I'll kick it and he can chase it. That doesn't work when we wander off onto the grass to check hilltops and draws, so he leaves me and the rock and goes to investigate on his own.

I was coming down off the top of one of the biggest hills on the place when I heard something and looked up to see the biggest fox I've ever seen in my life chasing Murphy down the draw toward the corrals. This fox was coyote sized, but with the long bushy tail, he was definitely a fox. The fox was barking that hoarse bark they have and Murphy was running away from him like a scalded rabbit.

Neither of them saw me across the draw from them until I was probably 50 yards away. You'd think I'd know better after the varmints we've had in this area lately, but I wasn't packing a gun or I could have hit that fox easy. When he finally noticed me running down the hill toward them in case I had to rescue the dog, the fox stopped for a second and then tore off up another draw to the west of us.

Dangdist thing I've ever seen. Have any of you ever seen a fox chase a full-grown dog? Outside of being really big, the fox didn't look rabid or anything, but ol' Murph sure wasn't gonna let him get close!!!
 
Never had that happen with a fox, coyotes yes. I have had a coyote come right in to us when riding, come right into the dogs, and then run away when the dogs get after them in hot pursuit. They run just fast enough to stay ahead of the dogs, go out a couple hundred yards and they have their buddies waiting in the bushes, and they don't come out until the dogs are past them, so the dogs are surrounded. I have had to ride into the middle of them and run those danged yotes off before they do any damage.
 
Interesting story Belle, but the foxes down here don't get much bigger than a beagle.

My wife and I was sitting on the front porch early one morning having coffee about 3-4 months ago and heard a neighbors hound trailing something towards the house. A few minutes later, a grey fox slips out of the bushes about 50 yards in front of the hound and takes a look around in all directions.

He then proceeds towards the hay barn and climbs up the round bales to the top of the 3 bale-high stack. Soon after, here comes the ole hound and trails the fox over to the barn and puts his front paws on the bottom bale and bays his head off.

Not 30 seconds after the hound got to the barn the fox runs out of the barn on the other side and heads for a patch of trees. We thought the chase was over because the stupid ole hound just pitched hisself against the bales and bayed his head off, while the fox slipped out on the other side where he couldn't be seen.

Just about that time another fox showed up out of nowhere in the middle of the adjoining pasture in full view of the hound, like he was tempting that ole hound to come after him.

Well, sure enough he did take out after him and off they go with the fox a little over 100 yards ahead of the hound making a big circle through the open pasture towards where the other (No 1) fox had gone in the trees.

About the time the No. 2 fox got to the trees, in plain sight next to the hay barn was fox No. 1 just meandering around in front of the hay.

Sure enough the hound looked up, saw the No. 1 fox at the barn and I guess figured he'd go after the one he could see and took off towards the barn.

Yep, you guessed it, that fox crawled up the hay in plain sight of the hound, knowing he couldn't climb up there after him and sure enough the No. 2 fox eases out in the pasture again tantalizing that hound.

Both my wife and I spent probably 15 minutes laughing and pointing at the way those two foxes were making a fool out of that ole hound. When I went out the driveway a little later the ole hound was laying by the barn with his tongue hanging out wondering where that fox went.

He'd of been ashamed if he knew there were two.

My wife feeds those foxes just about every night now.
 
Mike said:
Interesting story Belle, but the foxes down here don't get much bigger than a beagle.

My wife and I was sitting on the front porch early one morning having coffee about 3-4 months ago and heard a neighbors hound trailing something towards the house. A few minutes later, a grey fox slips out of the bushes about 50 yards in front of the hound and takes a look around in all directions.

He then proceeds towards the hay barn and climbs up the round bales to the top of the 3 bale-high stack. Soon after, here comes the ole hound and trails the fox over to the barn and puts his front paws on the bottom bale and bays his head off.

Not 30 seconds after the hound got to the barn the fox runs out of the barn on the other side and heads for a patch of trees. We thought the chase was over because the stupid ole hound just pitched hisself against the bales and bayed his head off, while the fox slipped out on the other side where he couldn't be seen.

Just about that time another fox showed up out of nowhere in the middle of the adjoining pasture in full view of the hound, like he was tempting that ole hound to come after him.

Well, sure enough he did take out after him and off they go with the fox a little over 100 yards ahead of the hound making a big circle through the open pasture towards where the other (No 1) fox had gone in the trees.

About the time the No. 2 fox got to the trees, in plain sight next to the hay barn was fox No. 1 just meandering around in front of the hay.

Sure enough the hound looked up, saw the No. 1 fox at the barn and I guess figured he'd go after the one he could see and took off towards the barn.

Yep, you guessed it, that fox crawled up the hay in plain sight of the hound, knowing he couldn't climb up there after him and sure enough the No. 2 fox eases out in the pasture again tantalizing that hound.

Both my wife and I spent probably 15 minutes laughing and pointing at the way those two foxes were making a fool out of that ole hound. When I went out the driveway a little later the ole hound was laying by the barn with his tongue hanging out wondering where that fox went.

He'd of been ashamed if he knew there were two.

My wife feeds those foxes just about every night now.
Click to expand...

Puts me in mind of the court jester. I think that was how he got fed also. :wink:
 
Liberty,I hope ole murphy is up to date on his rabies shot,if he was outa your site,good chance he was bitten?................good luck
 
We just updated the rabies shots for all our dogs, including the two guard dogs so he should be okay.

Last year our neighbors lost a real good border collie to coyotes, but I've never seen a fox put the run on a big dog like this one did.

I'm thinking the fox is probably a big vixen with a den close by. If I get time I might have to do a little looking with a rifle along. The shed they were closest to is our lambing shed full of new lambs and ewes-in-waiting.
 
I had some barn cats and one AM I hear some terrible screaming and yelling of cats coming out of my hay field. So I waded into the field to where the grass was waving back and forth and just started kicking around.

Next thing I knew I kicked a fox straight up in the air. Apparently it was fighting with the barn cat!!! I was as surprised as the fox! :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:
 

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