My Fox Friend

Paige Krumperman Darrington (0:02)

Constant Wonder KIDS is a Constant Wonder Podcast.

Hi, Wonder Kids, it's Paige. Who are some of your best friends? Maybe you're thinking of someone you know from school, or maybe someone from your neighborhood. You could be thinking of someone you've known for your whole life like a sibling, or maybe someone you met recently. Friends are an important part of life. They care for us, inspire us, and help us figure out the kind of person we want to be. Have you ever had a friend who taught you an important lesson? Like how to be brave or how to be a good friend to others?

Today's guest knows all about learning lessons from friends. One of her most important friendships in life taught her about opening up to others and coming closer to the natural world. And that friend was a fox.

Catherine Raven (0:57)

The fox was so outgoing. He went out of his way to make a friend with a person. I think he knew it's not a great idea to live by yourself.

And he wasn't just friends with me. He was hanging out with magpies. He hung out with other foxes. He was very social. And I realized that I wanted to be him. I wanted that personality. It's been a long journey to get to where I am. And I thank the fox, of course, for that.

Paige Krumperman Darrington (1:30)

This is Catherine Raven. She's an author, and for many years, she worked as a park ranger in national parks, like Glacier, Mount Rainier, and Yellowstone.

In a lot of these places, she felt disconnected from other people, and like she wasn't the type to have friends.

Catherine Raven (1:48)

There was a time when I didn't really want to talk to anyone, and had trouble talking, and didn't think anybody wanted to listen to me. I just kept hearing voices saying, shut up, shut up, shut up, if I tried to talk, and I didn't like to talk.

Paige Krumperman Darrington (2:05)

This all started to change when she met a fox. As a ranger, Catherine was good at being aware of the animals around her, and she had noticed a fox hanging around her house in an isolated valley in Montana.

Catherine Raven (2:19)

I had been seeing him on and off. He had been on my property a lot.

Paige Krumperman Darrington (2:23)

Initially, Catherine was not interested in getting to know the fox.

Catherine Raven (2:28)

I was trying to ditch him, and there were other animals here that I was more interested in because they seemed smaller, like voles. It didn't seem like maybe a fox was a great idea, and it just didn't dawn on me that we would become friends.

Paige Krumperman Darrington (2:47)

But slow and steady, the fox continued to put himself in Catherine's path.

Catherine Raven (2:53)

The first time that he became very close to me, that he really made himself known, was when I thought I heard a knock on my door. In fact, I'm sure I heard a knock on my door, just knock, knock. When I opened the door, Fox was there, and he was a few meters away, not close enough to have reached out and knocked. It was just barely raining, just drizzling a little bit. He was soaking wet, and he looked down the driveway, and then he looked at me, and he looked down the driveway again. I had the impression that he was trying to tell me that somebody had knocked on my door and had fled down the driveway. And I think he was tricking me, actually. I went and walked all the way around the house, and there wasn't anybody around anywhere. It was just the Fox.

Later on, many months later, when I got to know him, I realized he had a habit of taking a rock and pushing it against the door, and he would make that knock knock. He would do it twice, and it would make that sound. It was like this brownie-shaped rock that was next to the front door, and he would knock it, and I would hear that. And that must have been what he did that night and then walked away.

So he was kind of a tricky little guy, and I didn't figure that out that night, and I couldn't figure out what a soaking wet Fox was doing. But being so tiny and being so soaking wet when it's hardly raining kind of made me feel sorry for him.

Paige Krumperman Darrington (4:17)

What a funny little interaction. Even though she didn't let the knocking fox into her house, I'm sure you can see why Catherine was growing more and more curious about her neighbor.