It’s both a lesson in wildlife trapping and rescue and a lesson in how not to recycle your peanut butter jars!
Mill Valley resident Jenny Adleman noticed that among a new family of foxes who had taken up residence under her deck, one of the kits had gotten himself stuck in a peanut butter jar. The jar was fully covering the baby fox’s head, and Adleman knew it was likely a matter of days before the fox died of dehydration or hunger — even though the fox was still cavorting around with his siblings and able to get around because he could see through the plastic jar.
Laughing Squid picked up the story, and Adleman had been documenting the litter of foxes and the mom for a couple of weeks on her Instagram account, even capturing the mother nursing the kits on video.
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“The fox den is under my deck so the kits are hanging out and playing on the deck every day,” Adleman wrote. “I’m trying not to fall too much in love because I know they will inevitably leave the nest.”
But then she saw the one kit get his head stuck in the jar, and days of back-and-forth ensued with Marin Humane, who came out to her house at one point but the baby fox had disappeared that day. Experts said the mother would probably get the jar off the baby’s head, but days went by and the little guy was still stuck — so Adleman got a borrowed fishing net was finally able to catch the wily fox, pull the jar off, and get him fed and hydrated before releasing him a few hours later. His favorite food: chicken livers.
The reel below sums up the story, but the full saga can be found here as an archived story.
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h/t: Laughing Squid