A beautiful day and a tiny cub.................

I have to apologise in advance for not being able to get a photo of today but hope the ones seconded from past endeavours will help the impression along........

Jada and I were walking along the river bank at lunchtime; the river was beautiful, the tide was coming in and the sky was cornflower blue, the swans were bobbing along in a little convoy and all was right with our world.   In fact it was such a nice day that I couldn't help walking on a little further than normal and there were no complaints from Jada as we ambled along.

As we rounded a corner, in front of us on the right, was a fox - it was just sitting there, not moving and for an awful moment I thought it was injured and all the possible causes - and solutions - jumbled around for juxtaposition in my over active brain.  I stopped, and Jada, not watching where she was going, bumped straight into me, looking up questioningly at the seemingly abrupt end to her walk. I put her lead on and she just sat down looking past me to where the fox was still sitting.

In fact it hadn't moved a muscle that I could see and I was just trying to decide what to do when out of the corner of my eye I saw the smallest cub.

It can't have been more than about 6 weeks old and was running as quickly as it's little legs would carry it into the undergrowth and safety.  Seconds later the fox moved, a brief flash of red as she followed it and was gone.

I can't imagine a time when I won't still be wowed by the river and its wildlife, every day is different and it's not something I ever take for granted, but today's sight was something I've never seen before, not at such close quarters - what a privilege.

And what a brave mum, ready to take on the world for her cub..........

Meet the girls..............

It wasn't us - honest!!

Loved this photo of them taken earlier today.

Keira, is a stunning Hovawart, a breed originally from Germany and reared as estate guard dogs; they are still relatively uncommon in the UK.  Poppy  is a sweet Border Collie, who up until coming to live with her present owners, had a very sad & neglectful life.  She is still nervous of people but gains a lot of confidence from her larger friend and to be honest who wouldn't!

I've been walking them around a large field, and since I've been letting them off lead they have taken to exploring everything within reach.  A rotten tree is the latest on their lists of 'things to see' - it has presumably come down in the heavy winds we've had over the last week as it was in situ this time last week.
Today however it has fallen and lies broken and a very obvious playground for two inquisitive dogs!
Poppy in particular took great delight in clambering over and through it, all the while watching to see if Keira was impressed enough to do the same - which she wasn't!
She pretended an interest for half a nano second before trundling off to find something more interesting to take her fancy.