Close Encounter with a Fox

When I was a teenager we lived on a farm. I used to get up early to take care of the chores and if the they didn’t take too long I would go out to the woods and roam around looking for wild blackberries and blueberries because mom made the best berry pies.
We had been especially busy and I hadn’t gone to the woods for a while. One morning I heard a dog yapping at the back side of the farm. We all thought the neighbor in back had gotten a new dog and tied it up. The next day the dog was still yapping, and on the third day it was sounding pretty hoarse.
My chores were done and I decided to go visit our neighbor. I crossed the field and entered the woods. As I approached the fence line between our farms I saw a dog hanging by its tail in the barb wire fence. I unwound its tail and the poor thing was pretty weak from lack of food and water. I carried it home and put it in the corn crib, gave it some water and went to tell my dad so he would doctor the dog’s tail. Dad had just finished breakfast when I told him about the cute little red dog I found. Dad wanted to know why our coon dogs and beagles were setting up such a ruckus. I said they got all excited when I put the new dog in the corn crib.
When dad opened the door to the corn crib the dog started growling at him. Dad took one good look, closed the door and started laughing. He laughed so hard he couldn’t talk.
Of course I couldn’t figure out what was so funny.
Finally dad said, “FOX! That’s a FOX not a dog. How did you get it home without it biting you?”
I just carried it in my arms and talked to it and petted it. It never growled or tried to get away. The fox wouldn’t let anyone else get near it, so I held it while dad medicated its tail. Unfortunately it lost half of its tail. When my fox was healed and strong dad said I would have to let it go free. Of course I wanted to keep it, but it just wouldn’t be fair. So the next morning I took the fox out to the woods and said goodbye. He looked back at me a couple of times and was gone.
Every time I see a fox I remember carrying him home and my dad’s reaction. For a long time after that neighbors and my dad’s friends gave me the nickname Foxy, which I secretly liked.
Of course I just had to do a painting of a red fox, which I titled Fox in Prime Pelt. Before it sold I decided to have 300 limited edition lithograph prints made of it.