THUNDER BAY — Shelley Eade-Psikla first thought the nudge at the back of her leg was from a friend or family member, so it was a big surprise to learn it was actually a wild animal.
The incident happened Monday while the Shuniah resident was tending a family plot at Riverside Cemetery.
"I was at my parents' gravesite weeding the flower bed. That's when I got the poke on the back of my calf," she said in an interview. "I turned around and realized 'Oh, this is not my friend. This is a little fox . . . I think he was trying to get my attention. He literally poked me with his nose."
Eade-Psikla wasn't panicking, but decided to play it safe and retreat to the safety of her vehicle.
"He was not afraid. I kind of backed up to get into my car because I didn't know what his intentions were. That's when I grabbed my phone to take some pictures."
Foxes have been spotted pretty frequently in Thunder Bay in recent years, but she said she was intrigued by this particular sighting for a couple of reasons.
"I thought 'This is just bizarre' because the fox was so different-looking, and then there were crows making all their noise."
Its fur was a variation of black, red and white, leading some residents who saw the photos to identify it as a cross fox.
Thunder Bay biologist Rob Foster of Northern Bioscience confirmed to TBnewswatch that it is a cross fox, a different colour phase of the red fox.
But Eade-Psikla has done some research online, and hasn't been able to find one that looks quite like this.
She said she took the photos because she felt that without evidence, no one would believe her description of it.
The other notable part of her encounter with the fox was the incredible amount of noise being made by a large number of crows who clearly considered it an intruder.
"Overhead there were hundreds and hundreds of them. They were all squawking, and this little fox, he was looking all over. The noise they were making . . . it was just wild. But I really thought he was a special little guy."
She said he hung around for a pretty long time before running down the road.
Eade-Psikla speculates he may have travelled from the baseball diamonds at nearby George Burke Park, where he may be used to people feeding him snacks.
