A couple of years ago I began daily walks with my dog, Chamonix, in the local cemetery during the pre-dawn hours.

Chamonix is a beautiful crossbreed pound puppy that looks very similar to a white English Golden Retriever.

On our walks we would occasionally see various types of wildlife such as deer, possums, armadillos and skunks.
Eventually we began to see a couple of red foxes that became less wary of us over time.

They would often sit and watch us from a distance as we walked past, intrigued I imagined, by Chamonix’s flowing white hair.

With the passing of weeks the foxes produced a litter of several kits that, even more than the parents, liked to watch Chamonix and me walk by.

The red fox, with its reputation for intelligence and cunning, is found over the northern hemisphere from California to Virginia, England, Russia, North Africa and Israel.

They live successfully in almost every environmental habitat, populating coastal areas, farmlands, forests, prairies and alpine heights. 

Highly adaptable, these small canines are clever predators. When told that Herod was out to get him, Jesus compared the king to the wily fox, most likely the red species.

I consider it a wonder that both of my own pet canines will noticeably grin when they are happy.

Dogs and other animals are capable of a variety of emotions, but to see mine grinning is one of my greatest pleasures. I like knowing they are happy.

Other animals demonstrate their emotions in a variety of ways. Though I never saw the foxes grin, there was something in their manner and behavior that expressed a pure happiness and joy in their lives.

I never heard any of the vocalizations for which they are capable, but they certainly communicated a sense of their daily joy of living in God’s world.

As the fox kits gained in size they became bolder, often trotting parallel to us for a period as we walked our regular miles.

The cemetery is large and we never knew where to expect them, but we came to see them daily. Sometimes they were ahead of us or behind. Other times they watched us while perched on one of the old stone walls. Some days they would dash by us, not far away, as if hoping Chamonix would join in a fun race.

And then one morning we pulled up to the cemetery to begin our walk and a fox was sitting on the low stone wall by which we always parked.

Pleased with this close encounter of about 8 feet, we watched him and he watched us for a few minutes. When we finally exited the truck, he jumped off the wall and moved about 20 feet away to sit.

As we crossed the wall into the cemetery to begin our walk, the fox rose and went one direction and we went another. But as we were walking, for some reason, I had the distinct impression that the fox had been waiting for us to tell us “goodbye”; that he and his family would be moving on. And after that morning we never saw them again.

“I will tell of all thy wonders.” – Psalms 9:1

Marc Blackwood is a member of New Covenant Presbyterian Church.