I get up in the truck when the lady opens the back door. Jovi steps up behind me.
"What in the heck is that?" He asks out loud.
There is a screaming sound that the poor animal is letting out. I can see inside of the box the animal is small in size. So, I gather this is a baby and not full grown. I pick the box up and out of the truck, laying the box on the ground.
"Oh sweet Jesus." Jovi sighs, now that he can see what I am seeing.
"What is it? Will the sweetie be okay?" The lady cries.
"This is a baby fox." I let her know, as I try to access the injuries the poor baby has by sight before I put my hands in the box to the frightened animal.
"You can't tell what it even looks like from all the blood though." The lady seems to huff.
"It is the sound the baby is doing. This is their scream. Was there any others around the area when you got it from the road?" I look to her quickly.
"No." She shakes, her head and calmly down quickly.
"Poor thing is trying to find it's mom." Jovi sighs and hands me a blanket.
I take it from him and slowly reach inside the box. "Hey little one. You're going to be okay. I just need to check you out."
With the blanket, I think it is the animals head I am slowly wiping over. Sure enough a snout comes out from being tucked down while it was screaming. The poor baby looks at me and stops screaming for a moment.
"See it is okay, I am not going to hurt you." I smile at the baby fox.
All of a sudden the baby fox jumps up and seems to cling to my arm. I use my other arm and make sure it is safe from falling as I pick it up and bring it towards me.
Poor baby can't be any heavier than a few pounds. I would say either this baby was the runt of the litter or it got seperated from its mother, because this baby is not even half grown.
As I stand up holding the fox, I catch as the hind leg is slightly off angle with a gash.
"Jovi could you wrap some of the guaze around its leg?" I try to stay calm and quiet to not scare the fox.
It is calm in my arms at the moment, which gives me time to look over it. I think all the blood is coming from the leg. The arm the fox is laying on makes it to where I have it half of its' body pressed lightly to my chest. Making it to where I have a free hand that I am gently running over its' body.
There is no other cuts or abrasions on the baby which is good but also a worry by being ran over I don't know if it was just the leg that got hit of if there could be internal injuries.
"Can I believe I got upset over a fox. I thought it was a cat or small dog. Shouldn't animals like that fend for themselves? I mean they constantly kill my chickens." She huffs and goes to round her truck. "You're better off saving other animals and let that things just die. I wouldn't have came if I knew."
I jerk my head towards her. "You don't have to be so heartless now." I seethe.
Jovi moves back from coming back with the gauze, at hearing my tone. It is not often I get so mad like this but that is something that bothers me this baby could have had a long death that isn't deserved with how this lady is acting now.
No animal deserves to suffer!
I take a deep breath and motion Jovi with my finger to wrap up his leg.
"I will save any animal that needs my help. This is just a baby fox and what they do is out of survival. There is no reason being cruel when it is unnecessary. I am more than happy that you brought this baby to me because any animal is welcome." I calmly tell her this time and look back down to the baby in my arms.
"Sorry, you're right I hold hate for a baby that may not know better. Hope you can save it." The lady smiles softly and get in her truck.
Jovi has the gauze open and makes his movements slow, as he begins wrapping the leg loosely.
The baby fox goes back to screaming and hides his head in the crook of my arm. With the leg being semi protected, I walk with him into the clinic. Jovi grabs the box so it is not left out in the parking lot.
Poor babies leg must hurt really bad since it has been touched it has not stopped screaming. I glance at Lola and she is on the phone.
"What is that thing?" She asks pulling the phone away from her ear some.
"It is a baby fox. I will be needing Jovi to help me sedate it. Can you get the door when you're done with the call." I rush out and walk into the surgery room.
Jovi gets the mask to put over the babies snout to help sedate it. I move my elbow out and the poor baby screams louder, seeing Jovi with the mask. Jovi is able to get the mask held over the snout long enough that the medication works to sedate the poor thing.
I lay the fox on the exam table and turn it to the side.
"I will get the machine ready for x-rays. Do you want to do anything else?"
"Yes, get a vial and gather some of the blood for testing. I need to make sure this baby doesn't have any diseases or worms." I nod.
Jovi gets on it and I unwrap the leg. I put on fresh gloves while he gets the blood. With him having the blood he steps over to the machines and starts to run the tests through, I get started on cleaning the wound.
Once I have stitched the area up, I apply a harder wrap to the leg to keep from getting chewed off. I wash my hands with it being done.
"All the tests came back clean. The fox doesn't have anything health wise wrong with it." Jovi looks at it softly.
I pick up the baby and walk to the back. "Could you grab a crate? A larger one. I want to keep the baby close and it doesn't feel right putting him in the kennel section."
"Him?" Jovi looks back at me while grabbing the crate off to the side.
"Yeah a boy." I raise his casted leg slightly.
"Dang boy." Jovi laughs. He sits the crate by my desk and places a couple of blankets inside it.
I lay the baby fox down and sit in my chair. At least while I was doing the fixing part on the baby, Jovi was gently cleansing his fur so all the blood and grim is gone. Now a beautiful little fox is sleeping off the sedation medicine and my patient.