Return of Limpy

… at least, I think.

Francine and I had doubled up on Saturday food purchases with the result that I had two chickens to deal with. I dealt with the first chicken by using the breasts for Cajun blackened chicken and freezing the leg meat (tagine, paella?). The resultant carcass went into my stock pot; freezer stock drawer now once again full.

Chicken #2 was larger. The breasts, along with a couple of sweet peppers that needed using, got used for chicken fajitas. The leg meat went into another freezer drawer hopefully destined for Pollo al ajillo, a Spanish garlic-fest of a chicken treat that we haven’t had for a while.

With a full stock drawer and not wishing to repeat myself, I decided to turn this second carcass into fox bait. I baked it in the oven for a while to give it some flavour. Clearly our foxes are spoiled rotten.

After the last couple of failed attempts with over boiled chicken followed by under-boiled wood pigeon, this time a specially prepared free-range chicken carcass, sourced from our monthly farmers market, did the trick. After one of our neighbour’s pestilential cats had turned up [not Tampon] and dismissively licked a bone or two, I was delighted to see that a fox pitched up shortly after midnight. It calmly sauntered about before going for the the easier leg bones first. Eventually it turned its attention to the main chicken frame, at one point holding it in place with a foot. This was interesting; I had fully expected a fox to grab the carcass and run off with it.

Our fox looked in good condition and moved fluidly with no sign of a limp. Having checked the markings, though, this is either yet another fox or it is Limpy with his gait fixed. I favour the latter. The shape of these leg markings and the dark patch on the side of the muzzle look good for Limpy. After all, the last time we’d seen him/her, which is a while ago now, the limp was certainly less pronounced.

Last night we recorded this main visit over several clips spanning 40 minutes as our welcome visitor polished off the various scattered bits of chicken. Although there was now nothing left, we recorded a further visit at 03:30 and I’m pretty sure this was also Limpy, perhaps returning from the night time excursion.

I wonder if I could buy a paintball gun for the cats? Bright pink might look quite fetching.