E.K. neighbours finally outfox, rescue injured fox
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After more than two months of playing cat-and-mouse with an injured fox, East Kildonan resident Ava Tassos was finally able to rescue the animal Sunday.
Tassos, with the help of Paul Karnafel, owner of The DogFather Rescue, caught the fox, which had spent months wandering around the area with mange on his hips and ears.
“I’m just so grateful to everybody,” Tassos, 62, said Tuesday.
Ava Tassos, with the help of Paul Karnafel, owner of The DogFather Rescue, caught the fox, which had spent months wandering around the area with mange on his hips and ears.
She first saw the fox near her Trent Avenue house at the end of May. After that, the fox returned up to five times a day to take advantage of the feeder Tassos set up for animals in the area.
She noticed the fox — which Karnafel named Trent, after the street — was clearly sick and unwell.
“He was just so hurt and needed help,” said Tassos.
The first time she attempted to catch Trent was a little over a month ago. She managed to trap him in the feeder, but by the time provincial conservation officers arrived, the animal had already escaped.
She said she was extremely disappointed, but refused to give up.
“I just doubled up on my efforts,” she said, “That’s when I started staying up later.”
Tassos spent countless nights watching the feeds from cameras in the yard for any sign of the critter. As soon as the fox appeared, she would go outside, armed with a fishing net, and try to sneak up for the capture.
Tassos was unsuccessful until Karnafel came along to help.
“He was the catalyst in making it happen safely and properly,” she said.
Karnafel got a call from a friend of Tassos Saturday who let him know about the situation, he said.
It was his initial foray into fox-catching; he built a trap disguised as a feeder. A net sat over top, held up by a piece of wood with a wire attached. Once Karnafel saw the fox in position on his camera, he gave Tassos the signal to pull the cable. The animal was scooped up with a fishing net and put in a kennel by Karnafel, who delivered it to Wildlife Haven Rehabilitation Centre in Iles de Chenes.
The whole thing only took about three hours, he said.
“He was easier to catch than most of my feral cats,” said Karnafel.
He said he’s happy he was able to lend his skills to help with the rescue.
“It feels great because this fox is going to get healthy now and it’ll be released somewhere in the wild and have a good life,” he said. “In the city either it was going to die from getting hit by a car or the mange was going to kill it, so it has a second chance at life.”
tiago.resko@freepress.mb.ca