Reynard resurgam

Yes, he's back, the scruffy half-tailed big balled b*st*rd! Things had been a bit quiet on the foxy front because, I guess, this year's three pups had moved on - hopefully not just to pastures new but to that great fox palace in the sky (I can but hope!).

However, dad has now begun to prowl around again and his latest trick is to pull out the bright red plastic cap which covers the rotary drier hole in the lawn. No problem, think I, I'll just put half a brick on top of the cap; no problem for me either, thinks foxy, I'll just move the brick and nick the cap anyway, and I'll give it a bit of a chew just to prove how clever I am. And that's just what he's done, the git. So now, the cap is in the house and the hole (have you ever lost the hole for your rotary drier? Blummin' hard to find again, aren't they?!) has a garden cane sticking out of it and looks really silly, but what else can a boy do? And if you say just leave the drier in the hole, that's a no-can-do because it already is - in a different hole, I thought I'd be clever by having a couple of drier holes to use at different times of the year to get full benefit from the sun.

And, by the way, did I tell you that when I had the pest control man round in the summer to get rid of a wasps' nest in the loft(!) that I asked him about trapping foxes and it costs around £120 a week to hire a fox trap and then around £70 for them to deal with it if you catch one? Even better, the chances of getting one into the cage is minimal if they're being fed by the neighbours. Which, of course, these pampered vermin are. Ah well, the fight goes on ....