| DICKENS | |
What’s an Arctic Fox doing in Florida?!? A slightly eccentric man decided an arctic fox would make a good “pet” and purchased one through a Pet Finder Guide for exotic animals. Unscrupulous breeders will sell animals to anyone that shows up with the cash and that includes selling arctic foxes to people who live in Florida, an environment that couldn’t be further from the animal’s natural habitat. This man kept the fox on his lanai until he got bored of the animal, who could not be litter box trained, and decided to “donate” him to Shy Wolf Sanctuary. The fox was purported to be only 6 months old, but his nails belied that story as they were really long. He came with no vet records and no donation (typical). |
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 Photo Above By Sonny Saunders |
The owner actually had the nerve to request a tax donation of $2200, as that is what he had originally paid for the fox! Needless to say we declined that request given we were taking his “problem” off his hands and caring for the fox for life. Dickens’ story took a happy upturn, however, when he came to Shy Wolf. First he got his new name because he was such a “little dickens” and a ball of energy…literally bouncing off people’s backs and racing around every time someone entered his enclosure. We’ve tried introducing him to other foxes but none of them got along, perhaps because they come from vastly different parts of the world. Even though we live in Florida, Dickens still sheds his winter coat (above left) for his summer coat (above right) every year. He is the only animal at the sanctuary with his own air conditioning unit and we have engineering students from Florida Gulf Coast University working hard to plan an even better habitat that will provide him a cooler option at our new facility. In the meantime guests may come and visit with Dickens in his enclosure…but remember to duck your head as the ceiling is low! |
