Man Eating Fox!

eyedclaar

September 26, 2008 - 7:10 am

So there I was, minding my own business, riding my bike in the dark along the path that follows the Boise river through the city's park system, when all of the sudden, a hulking fox lept out of the bushes and charged right at me! However, his head was turned around and looking back over his shoulder like something was chasing it. As a result, he didn’t see me and I was going too fast to stop and we were on a direct collision course. Hitting the animal or trying to dodge it would almost certainly end with me sprawled on the path intertwined with my mangled bike and a terrified fox chewing on my face.

So I shout, “Hey fox”, which startles the beast and the animal changes course, but now he’s running straight in front of me and thinks I’m the one chasing him. He feints left and he feints right but stays on the path. I start to laugh because I’m still right behind him while he demonstrates some of his best escape moves. About fifty yards into the chase, he calmed down and realized all he had to do is run off the path, which he did but also managed to look a bit sheepish as he vanished back into the bushes.



Anybody else have any close calls with wild animals? For the record, this barely qualifies, but it made my morning commute nonetheless.

angie76

wow, that was something. The one story that pops in mind is when I was in Highschool. I was chilling out in the morning, sitting on a bench that was in this hallway that looked out to a court yard. I looked up and saw what I thought was a dog running towards the glass doors. It turned out it was a deer, a fawn. It crashed through the glass door while i was freaking. It turned and crashed through another glass door.

I forgot what happened. Im guessing it had to be euthanized.

share

I once had an encounter with the ever elusive bearded clam but
it noticed I had a one-eyed snake as an accomplice and swam away.
It is like my white whale but one day I will capture it, oh yes, I will
conquer that beast.

eyedclaar

share wrote:

I once had an encounter with the ever elusive bearded clam but
it noticed I had a one-eyed snake as an accomplice and swam away.
It is like my white whale but one day I will capture it, oh yes, I will
conquer that beast.

Never have I heard of a more noble pursuit. Good luck and God speed!

eyedclaar

angie76 wrote:

wow, that was something. The one story that pops in mind is when I was in Highschool. I was chilling out in the morning, sitting on a bench that was in this hallway that looked out to a court yard. I looked up and saw what I thought was a dog running towards the glass doors. It turned out it was a deer, a fawn. It crashed through the glass door while i was freaking. It turned and crashed through another glass door.

I forgot what happened. Im guessing it had to be euthanized.

So the deer just charged straight into a glass door and then another one? That's a little odd.

The same scenario I described with the fox also happened to me with a deer once but I was driving on a dirt mountain road. I deer just barreled down the side of the mountain right into my oncoming truck. No way I could have even slowed down. At the last possible micro-second it turned on a dime and started running straight up the road but by that time I had caught up with it. So, the deer was running right next to the driver side door of my truck. I easily could have reached out and pulled its tail if I had wanted to.

JaneNY

eyedclaar wrote:

Anybody else have any close calls with wild animals?

I have petted a skunk, in the dark. I thought it was one of the outdoor cats, at night when I was putting some food out for them. The fur felt so wiry, and I looked down and there it was in black and white. It didn't freak out or anything, and fortunately no spray.

I have also picked up a large snapping turtle off the road, so it wouldn't get run over, and it didn't bite me.

Fed hummingbirds sugar water.

Caught a snake trying to get under the door at the front of my fitness center. I got it in a shovel and took it outside.

Brought a hedgehog home when I was ten. It died though - it was sick.

My daughter caught a bat and we released it in the woods.

I guess I've had more animal encounters than I thought.

angie76

eyedclaar wrote:

So the deer just charged straight into a glass door and then another one? That's a little odd.

The same scenario I described with the fox also happened to me with a deer once but I was driving on a dirt mountain road. I deer just barreled down the side of the mountain right into my oncoming truck. No way I could have even slowed down. At the last possible micro-second it turned on a dime and started running straight up the road but by that time I had caught up with it. So, the deer was running right next to the driver side door of my truck. I easily could have reached out and pulled its tail if I had wanted to.

Oh it was odd and it scared the shit out of me. People speculated that it was spooked by hunters or maybe it had rabies.

damn...lucky it turned. You could have got hurt.

eyedclaar

JaneNY wrote:

I have petted a skunk, in the dark. I thought it was one of the outdoor cats, at night when I was putting some food out for them. The fur felt so wiry, and I looked down and there it was in black and white. It didn't freak out or anything, and fortunately no spray.

I have also picked up a large snapping turtle off the road, so it wouldn't get run over, and it didn't bite me.

Fed hummingbirds sugar water.

Caught a snake trying to get under the door at the front of my fitness center. I got it in a shovel and took it outside.

Brought a hedgehog home when I was ten. It died though - it was sick.

My daughter caught a bat and we released it in the woods.

I guess I've had more animal encounters than I thought.

That's a funny skunk story. I have seen wild skunks act real casual around people before.

tybird

Black-capped Chickadees landed on my hand and took seeds from my palm.

eyedclaar

tybird wrote:

Black-capped Chickadees landed on my hand and took seeds from my palm.

OH MY GOD! You must have been terrified! We're lucky you're still with us...

Rygar

eyedclaar wrote:

OH MY GOD! You must have been terrified! We're lucky you're still with us...

I've had this experience numerous times as well, and I still get frightened thinking about it today...


Also I've come with 5-10 feet of a deer (probably the same one) the last 3 times I trekked out back by myself to go fishing. Just walking along not paying attention to anything until I am right on the deer, who looks at me and casually trots off.



Then I think of bears and walk the rest of the way with my hand on me knife.

eyedclaar

Rygar wrote:

I've had this experience numerous times as well, and I still get frightened thinking about it today...


Also I've come with 5-10 feet of a deer (probably the same one) the last 3 times I trekked out back by myself to go fishing. Just walking along not paying attention to anything until I am right on the deer, who looks at me and casually trots off.



Then I think of bears and walk the rest of the way with my hand on me knife.

You are one of only a handful of people to have survived such a close encounter with a deer... and to have done it more than once? You are a miracle man, my friend.

Rygar

eyedclaar wrote:

You are one of only a handful of people to have survived such a close encounter with a deer... and to have done it more than once? You are a miracle man, my friend.

You didn't say it would have to be a dangerous close encounter.
I'll raise you two deer encounters to your fox encounter.

eyedclaar

Rygar wrote:

I'll raise you two deer encounters to your fox encounter.

Man, I am going to have to pull out the big guns now. Ok, we all know that I was once attacked by an entire herd of red-eyed and rabid mountain goats but I'm not sure if I mentioned the time I was camped at the base of cliff and a sasquatch appeared in the rocks above me and started hurtling pissed off racoons down at me.

I was seriously injured in both encounters but managed to survive by curling up in a fetal position and crying until the animals couldn't bring themselves to harm me anymore.

Rygar

eyedclaar wrote:

Man, I am going to have to pull out the big guns now. Ok, we all know that I was once attacked by an entire herd of red-eyed and rabid mountain goats but I'm not sure if I mentioned the time I was camped at the base of cliff and a sasquatch appeared in the rocks above me and started hurtling pissed off racoons down at me.

I was seriously injured in both encounters but managed to survive by curling up in a fetal position and crying until the animals couldn't bring themselves to harm me anymore.

I got bit in the ass by a german shepard that had a bad case of gum disease, no teeth, it was blind in two of it's eyes, it was missing a leg, and it was a on a 3 foot chain.


I did have a raccoon encounter but only to feed them old dinner rolls on my step. They told me about you and how they laughed.

eyedclaar

Rygar wrote:

I got bit in the ass by a german shepard that had a bad case of gum disease, no teeth, it was blind in two of it's eyes, it was missing a leg, and it was a on a 3 foot chain.


I did have a raccoon encounter but only to feed them old dinner rolls on my step. They told me about you and how they laughed.

They did laugh. The more I cried the more they laughed until at last they weren't mad anymore. Or, they were just exhausted from laughing so much.

Oh, and that will teach you to mess with some kind of zombie dog.

Rygar

eyedclaar wrote:

They did laugh. The more I cried the more they laughed until at last they weren't mad anymore. Or, they were just exhausted from laughing so much.

Oh, and that will teach you to mess with some kind of zombie dog.

Oh I lurnded my lesson I did.


The raccoon part was true. I can't speak raccoon so I had to run it through babelfish and that's what it told me they said. They seemed to understand me fine. Their leader's name was Paul.

Actually the german shepard part was true, too, only it had all it's teeth (it may have had gingivitis, I'm not sure), it wasn't blind, it had 4 legs, and wasn't chained up, I was 8, and I pissed myself.

eyedclaar

Rygar wrote:

Oh I lurnded my lesson I did.


The raccoon part was true. I can't speak raccoon so I had to run it through babelfish and that's what it told me they said. They seemed to understand me fine. Their leader's name was Paul.

Actually the german shepard part was true, too, only it had all it's teeth (it may have had gingivitis, I'm not sure), it wasn't blind, it had 4 legs, and wasn't chained up, I was 8, and I pissed myself.

Racoons, always one step ahead, clever bastards.

Actually I was bit by a german shepherd when I was about 10. The owners then gave me a bunch of cash, which made it alright, but my parents looked at my chewed on leg and decided it wasn't that bad and that I had to return the money. I mean it was bruised and bloody what did they need? I remember thinking that returning the $ wasn't so bad but I was afraid to ride my bike back to their house.

Rygar

eyedclaar wrote:

Racoons, always one step ahead, clever bastards.

Actually I was bit by a german shepherd when I was about 10. The owners then gave me a bunch of cash, which made it alright, but my parents looked at my chewed on leg and decided it wasn't that bad and that I had to return the money. I mean it was bruised and bloody what did they need? I remember thinking that returning the $ wasn't so bad but I was afraid to ride my bike back to their house.

I never went back to my neighbour's house after that, not that I was an overly frequent visitor beforehand.... They didn't care that their dog bit someone in the first place. I may have gotten revenge, I'm not sure.

redmosquito10

me and a few friends suck onto a golf course one night and were playing night golf (ball with a hole in it that you put a little glowstick in) and drinking. We were taking a little break and sitting on a bench drinking, when we heard a coyote howl. I commented on how sweet that souded, etc. A couple minutes later there was another howl, immediately followed by like 6 other howls and then a lot of yipping. We all still thought it was cool, but over the course of the next 2 minutes we realized that the sounds were coming closer and closer and started to get a little nervous. Needless to say, we eventually wound up being chased off the course by a pack of coyotes. In the course of our escape in the pitch dark, I looked to my left, expecting to see my one friend, and found that he had disappeared. Turns out the backyard he had chosen to cut through had a chicken-wire fence, which he ran into, and proceeded to become ridiculously tangled up in. I ran over to him, and after watching him roll around in a ball of wire for a while, pulled him out of the tangle, ripping all his clothes in the process, and we high-tailed it to our cars, where I couldn't drive for about half an hour because I couldn't stop laughing

norm

And, when the doctor said I didn't have worms any more, that was the happiest day of my life.