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‘You don’t like smoking?’

‘Not around my animals, no.’ Her words were short and clipped. Yet again he’d managed to annoy her.

‘Sorry.’ He stamped it out on the ground.

‘Pick it up please. There’s plenty of silly critters around here who would happily try eating it.’

‘Oh. Sorry.’ He stooped to pick up the offending remnants of his break, looking up to come face to face with a pair of curious gold eyes peering at him over a ginger-and-white muzzle.

‘Is that a fox?’ He’d felt silly asking. Ginger fur, white belly, pointy ears and fluffy tail. It looked like the foxes he’d seen before — mostly on TV or in reels, but he’d never seen one skipping around someone’s ankles like a dog.

‘Yes. This is Ruby. Ruby, stop showing off.’ She pulled what looked like a dog toy out of her pocket and sent it bouncing out of the barn, the fox flying after it, giving her the space to work.

‘You have a pet fox?’ Rick’s eyes were incredulous as Ruby bounded back in, proudly holding her toy aloft.

‘Absolutely not. Ruby’s a rescue too. Just like all the animals here. Foxes make terrible pets. They’re messy, destructive, noisy and territorial. And they like to scent-mark their territory too — which stinks. They need a huge amount of space and mental stimulation, otherwise they get into all sorts of trouble. Unfortunately Ruby’s previous owners didn’t realise any of this until she’d well and truly imprinted on humans.’

‘She seems happy.’ He watched the fox roll around with her toy.

‘Yes, but she shouldn’t be. With two people standing here, talking, she should be nervous — watchful at the very least. Instead she’s showing off.’ She secured the door on the moorhen’s new coop. ‘Rehabilitation was tried, but she failed miserably. She can’t ever be released.’

‘So what do you do with her?’ He really wanted to get some footage of her. A cute fox that jumped and played like a dog? That would go viral for sure!

‘She has a bed in one of the other sheds. The donkeys tolerate her, but I don’t think they’d like her sharing their space too closely. I feed her, keep an eye on her, and she pretty much comes and goes as she pleases. Sometimes she invites herself into the office, but I try to discourage her from the main house.’

‘Why?’ Rick quite liked the idea of snuggling with a fox in front of the TV. Yvette would probably love it.

‘You can’t house-train a fox like you do a dog.’

Maybe not then. ‘Hey Ruby-ru.’ He crouched down, stretching out his hand to her. ‘Wanna play? Are you friendly?’

Angela shook her head. ‘She can be, when she wants to be. But she’s as likely to try and bite you as she is to let you pet her.’

‘Thanks for the warning.’ He stayed in position, and was rewarded when a wet nose and fuzzy snout investigated his fingers. After a few seconds, he carefully rubbed a pointed ear gently, prompting the fox to lean against him, making a soft clicking noise. He didn’t know what it meant, but it sounded happy. ‘I don’t think you’re going to nip me, are you?’ He murmured the words softly. ‘I think you might even like me, don’t you?’ He sighed. At least someone did.