TRIXIE
255
Corgi bitch, but any unusual noise, the closing of a book or the
turning over of a newspaper would send her leaping for the
security of her box. Living on the coast at week-ends, which
entails a fifty-mile car journey, Trixie was soon being transported
to and fro on the back seat of the car in company with the
Corgi, Labrador pup and the cat.
This picture of domestic bliss was the delight of the petrol
pump attendants on route. All the animals behaved extremely
well in the ear, but the cat was treated with the great respect
they usually command in any company.
On a lead she will walk in company with the dogs, but dislikes
crossing open ground, preferring to keep in the vicinity of the
hedgerows.
A stranger appearing several hundred yards away will send
her scurrying for cover and to watch unseen until the danger
has passed.
Her great mistrust of strangers is a great embarrassment to
us, for anyone except the family is subject to a continuous stare
and every action treated as an act of agression. Members of the
family can now hammer, sing and dance with no reaction on her
part, but let one stranger raise a hand and she obeys her inherited
instincts and "goes to earth".
After a lifetime of associations with many creatures, I have
never had such a gentle and affectionate pet. Her affections are
shown by a vigorous tail wagging, accompanied by a high pitched
chuckle in the throat or rubbing her head against your own and
combing your hair with her long fangs.
Offered a piece of raw liver, she will remove it delicately from
one's fingers and then proceed to gently lick the blood from each
finger in turn. She is quite capable of shearing through the
flesh and bone of a hare's leg in one bite.
Her preference is fur rather than feather and to every one
fowl killed there must be thousands of rats and mice consumed
by foxes, and they must, in this respect, do an immense amount
of good to agriculture as a whole. Trixie is now ten months old,
and now that wild foxes throughout the country are dying with
encephalitis I wonder if she is not fortunate being in the sanctuary
of our home.
In any case the undesirable character I met in the first
instance was perhaps for the first time in his life responsible for
saving a creature's life.