Wildlife is Back and Teething!
This week the baby foxes are back. The missus went swimming and left her swim shoes outside the back door to dry and in the twilight the fox cubs seized their opportunity and grabbed the shoes. It seems they are teething and like a bit of soft plastic to chew. We came down the following morning to find only one of the shoes complete with a smelly little present inside the shoe. Cue lots of sighing and looking up for replacements on-line. Then the day after the new shoes arrived the other shoe dropped as they say and the cubs returned the second piece of footwear, also complete with stinky gift inside. This time cue lots of Dettol, you don’t throw away fairly decent things, so that fell to me. They are now clean and wearable once again, just as the swimming season closes for all but the hardiest.
Wildlife in these isles is somewhat under threat, apart from pesky, but cute foxes that is. There is a big push to re-wild critters in many places and one of the lesser controversial animals is the wildcat. This summer nineteen wildcats, complete with a radio enabled GPS tracker collars, were released in Cairngorms National Park in the Highlands and it seems to have been a success. The Scottish wildcat population was on the brink of extinction with the few wild-living cats now mostly feral domestic cats mixed in with the genuine strain. The wildcat had been all but eliminated in Victorian times, so the re-wilding has had to be done in collaboration with partners in Sweden and Andalucía with undiluted breeds available. With their help experts are raising another thirteen kittens for the scheme. The interbreeding of wildcats with domestic cats almost caused the collapse of the native species. The new kittens will be released into the wild next summer once they are aged six to eight months. Once freed they will will hunt for voles and mice in the grasslands and forests of the Highlands. The experts say that if you are incredibly lucky and see a newly released wildcat please don’t tell anyone on social media as they need time and space to flourish.
And if you love the wildlife of the nation then the Flower of Scotland Lily Vase by Royal Scot Crystal is the gift for you. It’s in a lovely box , can be gift wrapped and will be delivered for free on the mainland. And best of all it’s on offer at half price. It is hand cut with an intaglio thistle design. Go on spoil somebody.
https://www.jamespirie.com/gift-boxed-flower-of-scotland-lily-vase.html
