About Me

My photo
Nazareth, Pa., United States

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Phoenix, the Fantastic Mr. Fox

I've always thought foxes are supposed to be clever and sly. One of my distant cousins, Dessie O'Hare, was an elusive IRA member nicknamed the Border Fox. He would slip through the grasp of police ... until he got caught. Well, this story is about another clever fox. No, it's not FOX News (Conservatives, please bow your head), but a real, honest-to-goodness fox who was just minding his own business, trying to cross a busy Monroe County street, when he got nailed by a passing driver. The little guy forgot to look both ways.

Things didn't look well for the poor little carnivore, who suffered both a skull fracture and broken hind leg as a result of his failure to look both ways before crossing. Close to death, he was rushed to Saylorsburg's Pocono Wildlife Center, where he was slowly nursed back to health, thanks to some wonderful people.

He's made a complete recovery and has been named Phoenix, after the mythical bird that rises from the ashes.

Now that it's time to release Phoenix back into the wild, Lehigh County officials have authorized his admission into the 1,108 acre Trexler Nature Preserve, which was recently opened to the public. Phoenix will be set free today, 4:15 PM, at the Preserve’s North Range off of Mill Creek Road.

Amazingly, Phoenix's release coincides with Commissioner Dean Browning's First Annual Fox Hunt, scheduled to take place on Thanksgiving Day. "Bring it on," taunts Phoenix, who learned how to speak during his convalescence. "My hounds are ready for you," answered Browning, who tells me this hunt is just a prelude for his real target.

Pip the Mouse.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

interesting story. hopefully Dean is kinder to hunt with than fellow conservative Dick Cheney. I seriously doubt, however, that if Dean shoots his hunting mate that he be so powerful as to garner an apologie from the one he shot out of recklessness.

A fox if a formidable game hunt. Pip the Mouse, however, sits on a pastor's hand. Do you rally want to go there?

Bernie O'Hare said...

Dean is going after Pip anyway. It's personal. Pip sliced Dean's tires with his little mouse knife.

Anonymous said...

Re Fox News: Even some conservatives are repulsed by their rabid brethren. Mike Huckabee: "I just find it deplorable that some people on my end of the aisle want to find everything wrong and nothing right about the man as a man."
http://www.gop12.com/2009/11/huck-vs-rush-on-obama.html