Is there anything better than jumping into a pile of autumn leaves? Little children love to do it. Dogs love to do it. And for these foxes, it’s a treat they look forward to every year.
Whitby Wildlife Sanctuary in the United Kingdom shared a series of adorable pictures showing their rescued foxes enjoying a huge pile of leaves that was given to them by children who collected the leaves especially for them.
Little Rainbows at Church House Nursery and Fylingdales Pre-School donated the leaves, with the children helping to gather up all the leaves that have fallen at their nurseries. After gathering tje bags of leaves, Little Rainbows at Church House Nursery wrote, “We hope that the foxes have lots of fun playing with the leaves!
To say the foxes enjoyed it would be an understatement. The foxes eagerly sniffed the leaves before diving in to play.
“It makes such a wonderful enrichment for them,” Whitby Wildlife Sanctuary wrote on Facebook. Soon, they were all smiles. One of their foxes, Ruby, “spent much of the day napping in the leaves.” Ruby, it should be noted is a “three-legged beauty” who is “too comfortable around humans for release.”
In fact, they all enjoyed resting in the leaf pile.
And Beau, well he spent the day “throwing himself into piles of leaves.” Whitby Wildlife Sanctuary shared a short video of Beau diving into the leaves (see below) and said they had leaves enough to include some in their badger enclosure so they could “snuffle through” them.
The sanctuary shared more information on their foxes Arya, Ruby, Lucky. Arya and Ruby are both tripods and too tame to release back into the wild. Lucky is blind and has neurological issues.
All in all, the fun day in autumn leaves was a much needed lighter moment among many challenges Whitby Wildlife Sanctuary is facing. They are currently running low on dog food to feed the foxes and would appreciate any donation to help stock their food pantries.
They are also looking for volunteers and fundraising towards their re-opening early in 2023. “We are hoping to install canopies over our largest flights for increased biosecurity. These are very large areas to cover so our birds don’t just have netting alone. It’ll be completely roofed.”
The biosecurity risk they mention is to protect from the avian flu, which this past year caused the rescue’s aviaries to be shut down.
But despite these challenges, everyone at the Sanctuary was thrilled to receive the leaf donations from the schools and to see how happy it made their foxes. It’s a wonderful reminder that sometimes the simplest of kind gestures can bring joy to others.
Disclosure: This post may include affiliate links.