07/23/2026
"The Fox and the Hedgehog"
Tonight, I saw something I never expected to see in our own yard—a red fox.
I have seen plenty of deer around the woods near the home in Po***ck, Louisiana—but I had never seen a fox in the wild before. With more and more land being developed and forests disappearing, it made me think about how many wild animals are being pushed closer and closer to people’s homes while searching for food and shelter.
We have a small patch of woods next to the highway and a little creek on the other side of the property that only really fills when it rains. That is where this shrewd visitor appeared from.
At first, I honestly thought it was a cat. Then it stopped and looked right at me. I was already being quiet and still. So after seemingly deciding I wasn’t a threat, the fox continued on its way, carefully sniffing around near the garbage cans by our storeroom. He just took a brief look and sniff, not finding what he was looking for, and decided to move on.
Slow as a hedgehog—striving the be as quiet as a mouse on the gravel—I moved toward the bushes eyes fixed on where I thought he might end up in the yard stepped through the gravel I moved toward the hedges, thinking it would pass into the open yard. Instead, I discovered I was much closer than I realized—the crafty animal was only a few feet away, hiding beneath the hedge!
The moment it noticed me, it exploded into motion—racing across the front yard and disappearing into the darkness on the other side of the road.
For a few seconds, I just stood there thinking, “Did I really just see that?”
Maybe it was just a fox looking for a meal. Maybe it was simply a wild animal adapting to a changing world.
Or maybe, for a storyteller developing an epic tale—it was something more.
Sometimes inspiration walks quietly out of the woods when you least expect it.
(image by Craiyon.com)