Every Time My Son Sees a Particular Fox in the Neighborhood, He Gives a Devious Smile. I Know What He’s Up To.

by Allison Price

About a month ago, my 11-year-old son “Charlie” was playing outside when he suddenly ran into the house, grabbed some wire cutters, and ran back out. I only found out a bit later that he and his friends had discovered a fox with its head stuck in one of the yard fences, and he decided to free the animal. I told him it was the kind thing to do, but also a foolish one, and that he should have called animal control for something like that, as a trapped fox is likely to bite or scratch anything nearby and who knows what diseases it carried. Still, it was done already by the time I found out, so I checked him for any injuries (there weren’t any) and just thought it a weird summer occurrence.

Well, the past few times I’ve been on walking distance errands, if Charlie is along too, I’ve seen a fox trailing along behind us, never getting closer than about 10 feet or so. Foxes are somewhat common in the area, so I can’t quite swear it’s the same fox every time, but I think it is. And every so often it rolls onto its back and makes this squeaking sound while facing Charlie. I’ve asked him if he’s been feeding that fox, and if it’s the one he saved from the fence. He confirmed it was the same one that he released, and denied feeding it, but then had one of those sly tween expression things and said that maaaaaaaybe when he has a snack outside he isn’t the cleanest eater and if some crumbs fall on the ground and a fox gets them, that’s not really his fault, right?

It is long past time for this to stop. I don’t want a fox as a pet, and I certainly don’t want Charlie sneaking around to have a semi-pet behind my back. School starting up will help with that, as he’ll have less time to his own devices outside, but short of making sure he stays in the house or under my supervision, which I don’t really want to do as it’s not age-appropriate, how do I keep him from playing with his fox?

—No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

https://slate.com/advice/2024/09/fox-neighborhood-son-friend-parenting-advice.html