Changing of the Guard

In the early days there was a gray fox that just had one ear. He was the Boss Gray Fox. Nobody messed with him and when he came to eat everyone else waited off the porch. A few years ago the fox Who's Eyes Don't Reflect took charge and we never saw One Ear again. Reflect would lay in the same place each night just off the parking lot and watch the porch. When the first two hot dogs went out he got them always. Nobody else made a run at them or him. A few weeks ago he quit showing up.

Now the new leader has emerged. He shows up half an hour before sunset each night and watched the landscape waiting for me to put the food out. He sits on the same rock each evening and he gets the two hot dogs I leave in the fox bowl out in Kobae's yard. When the rest of the foxes show up he comes down to the parking lot with a growl and seems to be trying to direct who gets the next hot dog but it's bedlam not like when Reflect ran them. Where before everyone waited in line depending on their pecking order now I throw a hot dog out there three foxes might make a run at it and there are little skirmishes. In time it will sort itself out but for now he's just watching.