Jennifer Rutter always enjoys watching the wildlife through the windows of her London house. But since February, she’s had a very special visitor.
A bold little fox visits her garden daily and loves to sun herself on Rutter’s window ledge.
“I see that fox nearly every day, and she’s a favorite on our street,” Rutter told The Dodo. “The kids watch out for her from their bedroom windows.”
Rutter doesn’t mind having a wild fox as a neighbor, especially since the vixen’s so well-mannered. “She seems really polite and gentle,” Rutter said. “[She steps] off the pavement to let people pass, and, apart from the debris she leaves in my garden, she’s very welcome!”
The fox even brings Rutter gifts, leaving the trinkets on her doorstep. “It’s brought me so many ‘presents,’” Rutter said. “I’ve had a bag of moldy limes, lots of chicken drumsticks, a single sausage, a small toy car — bread seems to be a favorite.”
But nobody had personally interacted with the wild fox until this week, when Rutter’s kitten, Dodo, decided to make a new friend.
Dodo was hanging out with her mom in the home office when the fox appeared at the window. The brave little kitten immediately jumped at the opportunity to play with the wild fox.
“Dodo was on my knee, and I pointed the fox out to her,” Rutter said. “She jumped up to the window and caught the fox’s attention, and then I started to film. I’ve never seen them interact before, and it was so moving to see them mirroring each other.”
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The patient fox watched as Dodo pawed at the window and made little chirps of hello and then went about her business in the wild.
“I thought the fox seemed curious and playful — not a threat,” Rutter said. “It was like Dodo had interrupted her, and she was graciously giving the baby cat some attention.”
Rutter and Dodo look forward to future visits from the fox and can’t wait to see what presents she brings them next.