With Spring, Comes new Life

The Night Stalker

I thought I was alone but a shadow kept appearing in my peripheral vision.  I could see something watching me from over the sand dunes. When I turned my head to see who or what was watching me, it disappeared behind the dunes.  

I could feel my heart beating faster and I picked up my pace and headed toward the parking lot and the safety of my car.  Whoever or whatever was watching me was following me all the way down the beach.  When I reached the bridge to cross to the parking lot, I heard a scuffle in the darkness not too far away and whatever had been there, took off into the darkness.  

At that point, I knew it had to be some sort of animal.  A coyote? A bobcat? There are no bears here.  I ran the rest of the way to my car, hoping whatever it was wouldn't return to grab me for a late-night snack. 

The Great Reveal

That scary walk on the beach near my house was ten years ago. I've since found out who the beach stalker was and met her and her whole family. Generations of beach stalkers have come and gone since then and I've befriended every single one of them.  And now for the great reveal.....

 

I know, so scary, right?! 

All joking aside, I managed to laugh at myself when I realized my stalker was just one of these adorable little red foxes.  Over time, they became accustomed to me being around and now they even wait for me to pass by their den every evening during my walk.  Not too many people even know they are there because not too many people go far enough up the beach to reach their home. 

Getting to know the Resident Beach Critters

I lived away for a long time so I wasn't aware of the generations of foxes that made their home on this beach but I managed to piece some of their history together by talking to some long-time beach-walkers.  Through observation, I've learned their habits, where their dens are, when their kits are born and what they like to do for fun. 

Now, I know their routine. Every March, I see Dad fox scurrying around more than usual and digging random holes in the dunes.  Around this time, Mom fox disappears, not to be seen again until sometime in late April or early May. And I wait.  I wait until I see more activity around the den that Dad has been hanging around all winter. I wait for Mom to start coming out of the den more.  When I see her, I know it's almost time.  

And I wait some more.  

I wait to see one little furry face peek out of the entrance...then two....then three....until finally, they emerge into the great big world for the first time! I try to be there, from a safe distance of course, as they see this whole new world for the first time. 

Sometimes, one of them will lock eyes with me and tilt its head sideways in confusion at the strange creature lurking in the shadows. There's always that one brave one in every litter who'll wait until Mom isn't looking before inching closer and closer to me for closer inspection. Sometimes, the little one even tugs at my shoelaces.  But, I never try to touch or interfere. I just watch.

When I first started observing this den, Mom would bark at me and shuffle them all back into the safety of the den if one of her curious little ones got too close. Now that generations of this fox family have come to know me as a regular fixture on that beach.

From Toddlers to Teens to Adulthood

For a few months every Spring and early Summer, I return to the beach almost every night to watch these babies grow from tiny, nursing furballs to adolescents learning how to hunt for rodents. Playtime is my favourite time. 

Their hilarious antics include chasing their tail (and sometimes their siblings' tails), somersaulting over one another, play fighting and stealing anything they can get their little paws on. If someone loses something at the beach, it can usually be found near their den!

As spring turns to summer, the kits get their red coat and grow so big that you can't tell them from their parents. Day by day, I see them less and less until they leave the comfort of their birthplace for good, leaving Mom and Dad fox with another empty den...until spring comes around again.

How I got that Shot - An Adorable Fox Kitten Seeing the World for the First Time

All through the long, hard Atlantic Canadian winter, I look forward to the hot days of summer, but there's one event that I look forward to before the temperatures start to soar and the summer clothes comes out of storage; the new life that emerges from the sand dune den on the beach near my house. I'm talking about the generations of a fox family who've lived on this beach since I can remember and the little ones that are born there every spring.

The preparations start in early winter. The adult pair start digging various holes around the dunes for potential dens. When Mamma fox disappears and only the dad can be seen foraging for food in the evenings, that's when I know she is getting ready to welcome a new litter of little ones. 

From  mid-April onward, I watch the den like a hawk. Of course, my intentions are not actually that of a hawk.  I'm hunting but not for a meal; I'm hunting for the perfect photo of one of those little ones as they emerge from their warm, dark den and face the big, scary world for the first time. 

In early May, I knew that the a new litter of kittens had been born. The habits of the adults suddenly changed.  They were more watchful and they were hanging out in the same area where the den from last year was. 

One nice evening when I thought one of the little ones might peak out for the first time, I parked myself a little ways from the den where I could see the main entrance.  Mom was sitting nearby and Dad was watching my every move from his perch on a nearby dune. When anyone else goes near this den, the adults bark and give chase. But, they never seem threatened by my presence. They know me and I guess they know I have no ill intentions to their precious little ones. 

It was starting to get dark but I didn't have to wait long to see and capture one of those little cuties peaking out into the world. It happened fast.  Had I turned for a second, I would have missed it.  In an instant, a little face was looking out at me in wonder.  It didn't seem curious about anything else going on around the den - the seagulls flying overhead, ducks floating in the bay - it just seemed completely fixated on me. I snapped the photo and the little one retreated back into the safety of the den.  

I didn't realize the photo had come out so well until I got home.  It's a keeper.  Only taken with a phone so maybe a little out of focus but it certainly captures the cute moment effectively! 

The Moose of the Cape Breton Highlands

Although they're not as commonly spotted these days, there was a time when moose were so plentiful in the Cape Breton Highlands, it was a normal thing to see a dozen in one day.  There are still plenty of moose in northern Cape Breton and it's likely that you would see at least one during a trip through the park.  The Skyline Trail, on top of North Mountain and anywhere between Neil's Harbour and Ingonish are the most likely places to spot a moose but they can be spotted anywhere in the park and along the Cabot Trail.  They are amazing to watch but care needs to be taken when driving in moose country because they like to wander out onto the roads and into traffic. 

The Black Black is just one of the Many Animals that can be Spotted on Cape Breton Island

Wildlife is plentiful on Cape Breton Island.  Deer, moose, coyote, fox, rabbit, bobcat, lynx and bear are commonly spotted around the island especially in the more remote areas of the south coast and the Cape Breton Highlands National Park.

I spotted this young black bear along the road going through the Cape Breton Highlands National Park near Cheticamp. 

You Will be Missed Captain Jack

Captain Jack - June 2004 - March 2020

 As if the madness that is our world right now couldn't get any worse, I have some sad news to report.  At various times in the past, I've written about my beloved cat, Captain Jack.  That feisty, loyal, funny and entertaining tabby who was the centre of my life for 16 years has crossed the Rainbow Bridge.

Captain Jack's passing leaves a huge void in my life.  I live alone and now that I'm isolated from the rest of the world due to current events, I'm even more alone without my best buddy to turn to for comfort.

I no longer feel his paw hitting my leg at 6:30 AM for me to get up. I no longer hear his loud meows after I hit the snooze button a second time. My morning routine is shortened now but I miss those mundane things like cleaning his litter box rinsing his bowls and topping up his food.

Things that annoyed me before - litter tracked all over the house, cat hair coating everything and food spills - are now things I miss.  He had an annoying habit of using his paws to scoop up water to drink.  This resulted in wet footprints all over the house.  The paw prints from his last walk from his bowl to the bedroom remained frozen in time for a week after he passed.  It broke my heart to have to wash the floors and wash away those precious prints that I now miss seeing. Another annoying habit he had was licking plastic bags at all hours of the day and night.  How I would do anything to be woken up by that sound again.

No more paw tapping my leg when I stand too close (he had a habit of following me around and sometimes I stepped on him by accident so he learned to warn me), no more funny dances and howling at the sound of the can opener, no more big sad eyes looking up at me which was his signal for "Mom, can I have some treats?". 

I remember the first day I met Captain Jack as if it were yesterday.  It was a chilly fall evening when my sister walked in the house with a box in her hand. The box meowed and two paws came out of the air holes on each side and out popped the cutest, most adorable little tabby kitten I'd ever seen!  It was love at first sight.

My sister lived down the street so I was designated the babysitter.  I looked forward to the little kitten's visits but he could be one little bugger!  Destructive, manipulative....but oh so cute so he got away with it.

One evening while he was visiting me, I left the room for a few minutes to take a phone call. When I returned, Captain Jack had vanished.  I mean, he literally vanished.  I looked everywhere for him.  In cupboards, under beds, under furniture, in closets....everywhere.  I lost a kitten in a tiny one-bedroom apartment.  How was I going to explain this to my sister?  After an hour of searching, I was in tears.  No meows or squeaks, no noise at all from him.  Finally, I just fell onto the floor in a heap in the bedroom, distraught over having lost my sister's kitten.  That's when I noticed something peculiar under the bed. The mesh attached to the mattress was sagging close to the floor.  Upon inspection, I found the sleepy kitten.  He climbed up into a hole in the mesh and took a nap.

When Captain Jack was about a year old, my sister and I got an apartment together in another neighborhood.  The layout of this apartment was much different from the previous one.  It was quite entertaining during the day to watch Captain Jack run up and down the stairs and zip around on the wood floors and find new places to hide and new things to destroy.  Climbing curtains and knocking ornaments off tables were some of his more annoying antics.

Jack developed a strange character trait early in his life; a fear of closed doors.  When he encountered a closed door, he sat outside it and howled.  If the door didn't open, he used his paw to bang on it.  If that didn't work, he would go as far away as he could from the closed door and run full force and throw himself at it....over and over again until it opened.  After a while of doing this, the observant kitty learned how to open the doors himself.  It was a newer place with those doorknobs that turn down.  All he had to do was stand on his hind legs, reach up and pull the lever down and he could go anywhere he wanted, whenever he wanted.  This meant that he could easily ambush me first thing in the morning.  He did this by climbing onto the top of the headboard and launching himself on my face. I had to remove said headboard to stop this frightening practice.  Eventually he settled down and started sleeping quietly at the foot of the bed.  Until his final days, he slept in the same spot and didn't wake me up until after my alarm rang the second time.  Did I mention this cat was super smart?

In 2016, my sister moved away to another province for work and was unable to take Captain Jack with her so I became his new full-time Mom. It was just him and I for a while after she left so we had plenty of time to really bond.  During this time, I taught him how to play hide and seek.  I hid behind a corner and peaked around every so often.  Every time I peaked around, he would inch a little bit closer while I kept saying "come get me".  Finally, the game would reach the point where I would peak around and instead of seeing him inch a little closer, I got ambushed. Ball was another game we played. I threw a little bouncy ball towards him and he'd hit back to me with his paw.  He was very good at this game. Of course, chasing the Red Dot was one of his favorite pastimes.  If he even saw a twist tie, a little dance would follow which meant "mom, you know how much I love playing with twist ties!  Can I have it, Can I have it?".

Captain Jack also developed an extensive vocabulary.  Ball, supper, breakfast, outside, treats, tuna, beds, water and monster were among the many words he understood.  The word "monster" in particular got interesting and sometimes very scary reactions.  It all started with a new vacuum cleaner.  Without thinking, I turned it on and Captain Jack went ballistic.  He didn't run and hide under the bed like normal cats do when faced with a vacuum cleaner.  Instead, he ran at it full force and attacked it before turning his fury on me.  There was lots of hissing and screeching.  From that day on, the vacuum cleaner was known as the monster.  Just saying this word, would send Jack into a fit of rage.  Anytime anyone needed to vacuum, he had to be locked away in a room. 

In late 2006, I almost lost Captain Jack.  I came home from work and he didn't greet me at the door like he always did.  Than I noticed the trail of blood going up the stairs.  I found him almost unconscious on the kitchen floor bleeding.  It was after-hours so I had to contact an on-call vet for an emergency.  He suffered a urinary blockage and needed surgery right away.  The cost was extraordinary especially for a young person just out of college and working low wages but without the surgery, he would die.  I came up with the money but I went without for a long time.  To me, it was worth every penny to have my little buddy alive and healthy. He had to stay in the hospital for a week.  I visited him every day after work and cried at the pitiful sight of him lying all alone with a little IV in his paw.  Many of my friends thought I was crazy for paying that kind of money when he would probably die not long after the operation anyway.  His life was saved and I was able to enjoy his company for many more years.

Not long after that health scare, I nearly lost Captain Jack again but for a different reason; he was waiting for me by the door one night when I came home from work but instead of greeting me and coming up the stairs with me like he always did, he bolted outside and up the street.  It happened so fast, I didn't have a chance to grab him.  I was frantic.  He had never been outside off-leash.  He was unfamiliar with the dangers and I was scared he would be attacked by stray cats or get hit by a car.  I spent hours looking for him, walking through the neighborhood crying his name.  I was in tears by the time I got back to my doorstep.  For a few hours, there was still no sign of him.  I decided to stay close to home and wait it out.  Sure enough, at about 3:30 in the morning, I heard scratching at the door followed by his familiar meows.  He found his way home.  When I opened the door, he bolted upstairs and didn't go outside for years after that incident.  Something must have spooked him because he didn't even want to go out on his leash anymore. 

Captain Jack was a unique cat to say the least.  Besides being very intelligent, he also had quite a distinct personality.  At times, I found myself having entire conversations with him because I forgot that he was a cat.  When I asked him a question, he answered.  He knew when I was mad, sad, lonely or needing a friend and always acted accordingly.  He was also very choosy about who he liked and disliked and when he disliked someone, he let them know.

Over the years, Captain Jack made many friends...and caused some of my friends to not come over unless he was locked in the bathroom.  If he liked someone, he rubbed up next to them, purred and jumped in their laps.  If he didn't like someone, he lunged at their feet, bit their ankles and screamed and hissed at them.  Several of my friends refused to take their shoes off in the house for fear they would be his next victim.

I moved many times over the years including back to my home province.  There was never a question of whether Captain Jack would come with me or not; Wherever I went, he went. When I searched for a new apartment, I made sure it was suitable for him as much as for me.  Some people leave their pets behind when they move or when they can't find an apartment that accepts pets. I keep looking.  Pets are for life. I just had to see how happy he was when I came home from work or a trip. My roommate once told me that he stopped eating for days after I left for one trip. She also told me he sat by the door all day waiting for me to come home from work. Now that's a loyal companion. I made sure he always knew how loyal I was to him too.

In the last year of his life, I noticed that Captain Jack was slowing down.  He no longer liked playing ball or red dot as much and he slept a lot more. I started working from home around this time so I could spend more quality time with him instead of leaving him alone ten hours a day.  It was in late January of 2020 that he really changed.  He started eating much less and his beloved treats were too hard for him to chew so I had to start soaking them in water for him.  His veterinary-prescribed food was also too much for him to chew so I started soaking it in water to suck up the nutrients in a syringe.  I supplemented that liquid diet with some canned tuna.  I knew something was really wrong come March when he stopped eating altogether.  Even once beloved tuna didn't stir his appetite. 

The evening before he passed, I put him to bed at his normal time (he was unable to jump in the bed anymore so I had to lift him up).  About a half hour later, I could hear him meowing and scratching on the wall to come put him back on the floor.  This usually meant he had to go to his litter box which he did.  It was when he attempted to jump out of his litter box that I knew the end might be near.  He collapsed on his stomach and was unable to get up.  I helped him to his feet and although he could hold up his front paws, his back paws just gave out.  He could crawl but never regained use his hind legs after that moment.  I thought he would be more comfortable in his comfy cat bed on the floor next to my bed so I placed him in there.  His weak cries and big, sad eyes looking up at me as I prepared to hop in bed told me that he wanted to be in the bed with me.  How could I say no.  I picked him up and placed him beside me and boy am I glad I did.  He passed the next morning and I wouldn't have been able to live with myself if he had spent his last night alone on the floor.

The next morning, Captain Jack was not ready to get up right away.  I let him rest longer while I went about my morning routine.  When I came in to get him a little while later, he was awake but had soiled himself.  I washed him up and carried him around the house in a towel.  It was a beautiful day outside.  He always loved sitting with me on the step.  In his final weeks, he loved being carried around the yard watching the birds and feeling the wind on his face.  I wrapped him up and we went for a walk.  I knew this might be the last chance to show him all of his favorite things.  Back in the house, I placed him in his cat bed and put a blanket over him.  I made sure to place it in the sun spot coming in through the window.  He always loved lying in the sun spots.  He rested there for a little while and than he passed.