Last July quite a few foxes roamed the neighborhood. Many people were up in arms about their presence. I rather enjoyed it. However, I don’t have young children anymore and, I admit, if I had I would have been more concerned.

The fox scare was brief. We learned that they were young foxes leaving their dens and looking for new homes. Once they figured things out and found suitable new homes in the woods nearby, they were gone.

One day I heard that a fox had been spotted early in the morning sleeping in a dirt pile, leftover from construction, in my neighbor’s yard. So the next morning, I went out with my camera hoping it would be there and this is what I saw:

This last shot was taken from behind my neighbor’s car at full zoom. The fox heard the shutter sound and stared straight into my camera.

I’ll never forget the simultaneous excitement and uneasiness I felt when I saw that stare through the viewfinder.

Here is the cropped photo to show detail. My camera settings were: 200mm, f/2.8, 1/250, ISO100.