The Case Of The Mysterious Shoe.

[Eleison]

I didn't know Britain still had wild animals, let alone foxes.

Well foxes are one of those rare animals that thrive in urban environments, much like cats, rodents and any number of birds.  The types of creatures that survive in urban environments are generally scavengers and/or very adaptable.  Animals that specialize in living in specific environments do not do so well.

[dead last]

The part of the US Midwest I live in is pretty rural for the most part. Nevertheless, in a city of over 50,000, it is very common to see possum, raccoon, owl, hawk, vulture, groundhog, deer, and to a lesser extent fox and coyote. Now in this area, we are seeing a resurgence of large cats (bob cat) and possibly even wolf, This probably has to do with the weird shifts in deer population over the last 100 years. First they were all killed off, so the predators left. Then they were protected, so they flourished, but people kept hunting the predators. Now they are so numerous that predator populations have been increasing. I hear that my state is actually releasing predators into the area in order to control the rampant "overbreeding" of deer. They are rather large and can be dangerous since they tend to wander across highways at inopportune moments. Them's good eatin' though.

[scourge]

We get all them critters in the Appalachian area too. There was a doe picking at hay stubble in the back field a couple days ago. They hop fences with ease.

[trystero]

I'd have provided the solution sooner but I've been in A&E all week with a serious spontaneous pneumothorax, and literally dying in extremes of pain.

Damn... are you quite tall? I suppose it could have been an emphysematous bulla or something. Is the tube out?

[Barbaar]

Speaking of London foxes... I'd never seen one from close by until I spent an afternoon in Highgate Cemetery earlier this year; the visit rapidly turned into a wildlife safari. Foxes there aren't all that skittish; you can spot them running around all the time, jumping from stone to stone, pooping on Marx's grave, etc. They probably use tombs and open graves for shelter. Appropriately for such a place, we stumbled into a dead specimen as well. And the squirrels feast on the flowers left by mourners:

[crow]

I'd have provided the solution sooner but I've been in A&E all week with a serious spontaneous pneumothorax, and literally dying in extremes of pain.

Damn... are you quite tall? I suppose it could have been an emphysematous bulla or something. Is the tube out?

Tall and slim, as is usual for those susceptible to pneumothoraxes. This is my third time, and by far the closest to fatal.
Three tubes in all: the first far too big for me. Then two more of the correct size. It's similar to being shot. There are going to be some interesting scars, probably indistinguishable from gunshot wounds.
Yes, the tubes are now out, and that is something that separates the men from the boys.

80 takeaway pills - hydromorphone - to do with as I choose. Will I end up a junkie?
Better a living junkie, perhaps, than a dead teetotaler 

[Hamhusu]

For crow's next thread:

And what does the fox say?

[crow]

For crow's next thread:

And what does the fox say?

Been there, done that 
I was The Fox before I became the crow.
Learn from those who know: the wild and adaptable creatures we pay so little attention to.

[Hamhusu]

For crow's next thread:

And what does the fox say?

Been there, done that 
I was The Fox before I became the crow.
Learn from those who know: the wild and adaptable creatures we pay so little attention to.

I'll have you know I have a tendency to lay down fox traps, lest they prey on the defenceless native-life.

I doubt you need any warning though.

[crow]

I'll have you know that for every action there is a reaction. For every act, a consequence.
The oddballs call it Karma. I call it The Sacred Law.
Foxes are very much like raccoons: selfish, savage opportunists. I love them all.

[Hamhusu]

I once wrote on a white board...

One question
Still remains
WHY?

To which someone wrote underneath:
KARMA