Fox Sleeping On A Tree Stump Makes The Day Of A Couple Stuck In Quarantine

My friend has this weird skill. He can doze off any time, any place. In a car, on a train, even at the dinner table while my dad is telling an army story. Turns out, this talent isn't exclusive to people.

Recently, Sara Ryan's parents noticed a cute fox napping on a tree stump in front of their house. The couple has been social-distancing and doesn't have pets, so a sight like this really made their day. Ryan's dad was the first to spot the wild animal resting on the remains of a dead tree the city had removed last year, and he's been sending his daughter updates ever since.

Eventually, Sara decided to share the beautiful pictures with the rest of us and uploaded them to Twitter. The shots of the adorable sleeping animal immediately went viral, and they already have over 487K likes and 85K retweets.

"My parents had seen this red fox in the yard several times this winter," Sara told Bored Panda. "In fact, she found one of my sister's dog's toys in the yard and was moving it around in the snow a few nights. The tree got cut down in late October, but they never saw her up there until the day I posted the picture. They were really surprised to see her in the daylight, let alone sleeping on top of the stump."

Nowadays, if the beautiful fox reveals herself, she's mostly sleeping. "Foxes are nocturnal. She leaves at night to hunt," Sara added. "My parents did see her running down the main street by their house, but since everyone is indoors, for the most part, the adorable animal wasn't in any danger from cars. Otherwise, she hangs out on the stump when it's sunny - sometimes she's there and sometimes she's not!"

Usually, Sara's parents try to stay out of the fox's way. But they still run into each other! "Once, when my dad was bringing in groceries, she popped her head up from her nap and then went about napping. I think she's relatively familiar with them now and isn't scared by them being her neighbors!"

Sara knows how well foxes can climb trees and said there's a garage nearby that the fox might get onto the stump from, but according to the Humane Society Wildlife Land Trust, a non-profit that protects wildlife by permanently preserving and connecting habitat, she might not even need it. Foxes can ascend trees that are straight up, and they will climb 'em to not only escape predators but also to take a nap in a sunny location, and they have been known sleep in hawk and owl nests. It's rare, but sometimes a fox will also raise their litter twenty or more feet above ground in a hollow tree. They climb trees head first, but have the ability to descend them either tail first or head first.

"I think that she likes the spot because it's sunny and protected," Sara said. "She really only can be seen from my parent's backyard, because she's protected by the garage in the other yard. It's a safe place to take a nap after a hunt!"

In a delightful twist of coincidence, just as Sara Ryan's parents found joy in watching a fox napping on a tree stump, another creative soul, Thomas Cooper, found inspiration by building whimsical homes on similar tree stumps. There's something truly special about transforming these remnants of once mighty trees into spaces that bring happiness and a sense of wonder.

If you're interested in seeing how a tree stump became the foundation of a charming haven for chipmunks, you might enjoy checking out how a simple idea evolved into creating enchanting homes for woodland creatures by repurposing stumps into delightful features.