As regular readers will know, Pretty has been carrying an injured foot for the past little while. It’s a typical fox injury (cut and swelling around the hind paw) and she’s been steadfastly refusing to put any weight on the foot for at least the past week. Foxes manage extremely well with these injuries,and most of the time their movement is seemingly unimpaired (though I must assume it does restrict climbing and jumping to an extent). Here she is about 24 hours ago, holding the hind leg up.

We’ve just seen her again in the garden (it’s raining so we weren’t out there for long), and it seems that things are improving. This could be a false dawn (or if she’s reckless she may cause more damage), but she is now definitely putting some weight on that leg. She carries it when moving quickly, but it’s good sign of progress that she’ll use the leg when standing or walking slowly.

We’ll continue to keep an eye on her (of course).

Just a couple of other photos tonight. The first is the rare sight of a Muscovy duck up a tree. It’s the female of the local pair and I was some way off when I spotted her precariously balancing on the trunk.

To close, a final shot of Pretty, living up to her name. Like the first shot, it’s from 24 hours ago.

Camera note: all shots taken with the Canon 7D. First and last shots with the EF 100mm f/2.8L macro IS USM lens. Shots 2 and 3 were with the EF 24-105 F4L IS USM lens. The Muscovy was taken with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS.