We were just about to lap up supper last night when we realised someone else was lapping up theirs. Or rather looking for something to lap up!

A tentative little fox cub had come into the garden and was foraging for scraps from the bird table. He was only about half grown and very thin, obviously desperately hungry to be out in full light. And obviously had done this before as he knew exactly where to look.

What the birds tend to do is snatch something from the bird table, fly to another perch in one of our shrubs or trees and eat it there, dropping half of it among the plants. Our dog is wise to this now and so was the fox cub who had his nose right down among the greenery below these favourite perches as if this was well practised.

The dog was going berserk. Clearing up after the birds is strictly her prerogative! Standing on hind legs like a trained bear to see out the windows she was whimpering and vibrating with the injustice of it. We were doing heavy threatening whispers of ‘sit, SIT!’ without moving our lips and standing like statues watching, Charley reaching for the camera.

Suddenly the cub twigged that it was in danger of being on Flickr; its sharp inquisitive face eyeballed us accusingly and it slunk away.

One cold dinner and ten minutes later I took the scraps out the front of the house and scattered them under the trees (out of the dog’s line of vision) in the hope the fox would find them later.

The scraps are gone this morning. They may have been cleared up by roaming cats, badgers, magpies, rats or any of the other wildlife that we share the land with. But I like to think a fox cub has a fuller tummy today and can safely sleep till dusk.

(To see more of Charley’s pix have a look at her page, the link’s in the blogroll; Charleythemo photostream)