Althouse: Glanced up from my work and saw a fox in the backyard, grabbed my camera, and caught him pouncing

December 18, 2021

Glanced up from my work and saw a fox in the backyard, grabbed my camera, and caught him pouncing — twice!

ADDED: Got up from my reading chair and looked out the window. The fox was back. I like his style, how he waits and thinks — looks around — then hightails it:

46 comments:

rhhardin said...: Imaginary mouse.; 12/18/21, 11:09 AM
JustSomeOldDude said...: It's a lot of fun to see them pounce in the snow. Focus... Focus... Foc... POUNCE!! Snout first into the snow and back up with a little something that you momentarily feel sorry for.; 12/18/21, 11:10 AM
Art in LA said...: That looks like badgering to me! 🤣; 12/18/21, 11:11 AM
Joe Smith said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/18/21, 11:19 AM
campy said...: You call that "fair and balanced"?; 12/18/21, 11:20 AM
Narr said...: Must be a Republican.; 12/18/21, 11:30 AM
chuck said...: Neat. A Republican fox, in Madison no less.; 12/18/21, 11:30 AM
Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...: Very Good! Not the first time you have seen a fox in yr backyard, I think. Am somewhat surprised in yr rather populated neighborhood. Have twice found a fox in live-catch possum traps here, but we have 10 acres behind us.; 12/18/21, 11:32 AM
Temujin said...: Clearly a Republican fox. Like this one: Republicans pounce; 12/18/21, 11:35 AM
Richard said...: It must be a republican fox.; 12/18/21, 11:36 AM
Amadeus 48 said...: Mostly, we see Republicans pouncing, don't we? That is what is put in the news headlines. Hmm...well, I guess the fox is from a red state. Reynard certainly is red (but not red like a Commie or other Leftie).; 12/18/21, 11:37 AM
michaele said...: I suspect many of your commenter's have already written in to say that with all that "pouncing", the fox must be a republican.; 12/18/21, 11:38 AM
Roger Sweeny said...: Not much wind.; 12/18/21, 11:41 AM
Yancey Ward said...: He is a damned Republican!; 12/18/21, 11:52 AM
Clyde said...: Ah, so a Republican fox, then. They are reputedly the pouncy ones.; 12/18/21, 12:14 PM
Scot said...: Vulpine Americans reject Rodent Lives Matter.; 12/18/21, 12:28 PM
Ann Althouse said...: LOL

Everyone made the same joke; 12/18/21, 12:40 PM
Douglas B. Levene said...: What was your dog doing while this fox was terrorizing the neighborhood varmits?; 12/18/21, 12:48 PM
Meade said...: Even Meade!; 12/18/21, 12:51 PM
typingtalker said...: Remind me why people want to live in a big city ...; 12/18/21, 1:26 PM
stlcdr said...: Foxes pouncing make me chuckle.

(I see everyone made the same 'pounce' joke...late to this party).; 12/18/21, 1:54 PM
Lurker21 said...: Predictable. When the Democrats mess up, the story is always, "the fox pounces" ...

It's about time the quick brown fox finally pounced on that lazy dog anyway ...; 12/18/21, 2:15 PM
JAORE said...: Potential rabies carrier eaten by potential rabies carrier.

Sleep well.; 12/18/21, 2:17 PM
Owen said...: Great photography --and a lot of patience waiting for Jump #2. Was he hunting mice? Voles?; 12/18/21, 2:18 PM
Big Mike said...: He wouldn't have needed the second pounce if the first had worked. But persistence will succeed when nothing else does.; 12/18/21, 2:19 PM
Narr said...: Great minds, same gutter.; 12/18/21, 2:22 PM
Harsh Pencil said...: So when places like the WaPo continue to literally say "Republicans pounce" are they either unaware that it has become meme-like, or are they just trolling at this point?; 12/18/21, 2:23 PM
The Wasp said...: They've just reappeared on Staten Island after a century. One crossed a street in front of us, we stopped, rolled down the window, and he stopped, turned, and watched us for a minute or two and then went about his foxy business; 12/18/21, 2:36 PM
rehajm said...: We have a couple in our yard. They live under a neighbor’s porch. The one we call bender is kind of mangey looking and the other is fluffy and perfect so we call it Disney…

They do the snow pounce thing in the pine needles. Get those moles!; 12/18/21, 3:20 PM
Skeptical Voter said...: As Yogi Berra said, "You can observe a lot by just watching." And the critters that can go through a person's backyard are interesting. I live in the brushline of one of the San Gabriel Mountain front ranges. It's only 7 miles or so as the crow flies to the Los Angeles City Hall--but the hillside above me has a lot of wildlife. Deer and coyotes are frequent visitors as is the occasional bobcat, mountain lion or bear. There's an environmental niche for rodents at my place. Ground squirrels on the hill just above my back fence--they're there to tease and frustrate my dogs. Now and then, the coyotes solve the ground squirrel problem.

In Southern California if you have ivy ground cover you have Norway rats. Every few years I trap them out of existence leaving the niche empty. On one occasion Merriam Chipmunks came in to fill that niche. I enjoyed watching them scoot across the pool deck in the morning--running from cover on one side of the house to the hedge on the back fence--hawks overhead made the journey perilous.

Time does move along--but one week three foxes (I don't know whether they were registered Democrat voters or not--all things are possible in L.A. County) showed up to drink from my swimming pool. And within a week the rodent niche--occupied by the chipmunks--was empty. Aerial attack by hawks hadn't done the job--but ground attack by foxes finished the little critters off.; 12/18/21, 3:45 PM
Caligula said...: My experience with a fox-in-the-backyard was that it became increasingly bold, and at some point became territorial about the backyard and became threatening.; 12/18/21, 3:47 PM
Andrew said...: Romantic/marital advice:
"Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom.” - Song of Solomon 2:15; 12/18/21, 4:02 PM
Assistant Village Idiot said...: Everyone seems to have pounced on the same joke I came here to enlighten you with. I guess I am not as original as I thought.; 12/18/21, 5:05 PM
Howard said...: Old Mother Flipperflopper hopped outta bed,
she ran to the window and she cocked her head,
"John! John, the gray goose is gone,
and the fox is on the town-o, the town-o, the town-o."
"John! John, the gray goose is gone,
and the fox is on the town-o."; 12/18/21, 5:07 PM
phantommut said...: I knew early on my Shiba Inu puppy was a Republican. He was pouncing on and seizing toys and treats all the time. (He also has a passing resemblance to a fox.); 12/18/21, 5:14 PM
Quaestor said...: Much better to be pouncy than poncey.

OK, ponce is a term of abuse. However, the left have been abusing language for a long time. Let's settle on homosexual and reclaim gay. I'm tired of explaining that between 1889 and 1900 the whole world, but particularly Paris, did not turn queer and then got over it. Let's further agree that homosexual applies equally to both sexes. I'm also tired of explaining that the Lesbian contingent at Gaugamela was almost if not entirely male, however poncey their commander was.; 12/18/21, 5:45 PM
Quaestor said...: BTW, that pounce is not exactly a pounce like a leopard's pounce. It's a common vulpine behavior that appears to be more of a flush than a pounce. The fox watches and listens for signs of rodent movements beneath leaf litter or snow. The pounce is an attempt to flush suspected but otherwise hidden prey. Spaniels do the same when flushing upland game birds.; 12/18/21, 5:55 PM
MadTownGuy said...: NYT headline:

Fox pounces!; 12/18/21, 6:08 PM
Bunkypotatohead said...: "So when places like the WaPo continue to literally say "Republicans pounce" are they either unaware that it has become meme-like, or are they just trolling at this point?"

Their writers have a pretty limited repertoire of catch phrases.
They're all 27 years old and know nothing, so we've been told.; 12/18/21, 7:29 PM
mikee said...: The fox has many tricks, and the hedgehog only one. But that is the best of all.; 12/18/21, 8:18 PM
Fernandinande said...: I'd always thought it was something like "Republicans scrambled" vs "Democrats moved forward".

Anyway, actual data, apparently a strange concept, from google:

"republicans pounced" = 111 actual results
"democrats pounced" = 104 actual results
111/104 = 1.07

"republicans scrambled" = 118 results
"democrats scrambled" = 113 results
118/113 = 1.04

So Reps and Dems are both pouncing and scrambling at about the same rate.; 12/19/21, 6:25 AM
wendybar said...: So the Fox is a Republican?? As you know, Republicans are the only creatures to POUNCE. They pounce on all kinds of true stories about Democrats that Democrats are loathe to print....; 12/19/21, 6:46 AM
wendybar said...: Man, I need to read the comments before I post a comment. Seems like a lot of people had the same thought.; 12/19/21, 6:47 AM
Scott Patton said...: Great googly moogly!; 12/19/21, 7:30 AM
n.n said...: The fox surveilled. The red fox pounced. The fox paused. The red fox with a black-tipped tail pounced again.

This must be an opening to a Dr. Seuss rhyme.; 12/19/21, 1:43 PM
MadisonMan said...: I wonder if that's the same fox I've seen early morning on the bike path while I walk my own pouncer. (I usually turn around when I see the fox -- so far my dog hasn't seen or smelled it); 12/19/21, 4:03 PM