Hungry like the dox
A local farmer has recently claimed that he saw what he called a “dox”, a dog-fox cross-breed, on his farm.
I love stories like this. They are so lame, and yet, so very, very good for entertaining dinner party guests* (I’m guessing alcohol has something to do with it).
I was pretty sceptical about this, as it seemed a bit like that “Grampians big cat”, which the internet tells me is true….see http://www.animalx.net/bigcats.html for more details.
But it seemed to me that the dox was just a little bit too weird – surely dogs and foxes would not be inclined to breed with one another despite their seeming similarities. As my MiL pointed out, “We share sixty per cent of our DNA with chickens, but you don’t see chickens and humans cross-breeding”. Well, no.
And in a second breathtaking lack of understanding about what the internet is for, Mr Fix suggested I could always have it concluded one way or another by trawling google for more information. Ah, Mr Fix. Dear heart, I wanted to disprove a wild theory. Does the internet really seem the best place to start for that?
Anyway, my exhaustive trawling of the internet came to this:
1. there hasn’t been one confirmed wild sighting
2. biology (including gestation times and basal temperatures) are against it as a lab experiment (please don’t try this at home kids, it’s really friggin’ evil)
3. most likely what has been spotted is a really fluffy fox all kitted out for winter
So I guess if/when I’m ever camping, I’m the first to be “for it” when an unexpected hybrid attacks – I’m that cynical-yet-doomed character who sits outside paying scant regard to their safety as the mythical local big cat/yeti/hzzzz/dox comes to attack them. Possibly I’ll be chewing on one end of my eye-glasses arm*.
As long as I get my fill of charred marshmallows before I go do down in a spray of dox-inflicted violence, I'll be happy. And at least I won't have to sleep in a tent.
* something I proved to myself on Friday night.
** note to self: buy eye-glasses
I love stories like this. They are so lame, and yet, so very, very good for entertaining dinner party guests* (I’m guessing alcohol has something to do with it).
I was pretty sceptical about this, as it seemed a bit like that “Grampians big cat”, which the internet tells me is true….see http://www.animalx.net/bigcats.html for more details.
But it seemed to me that the dox was just a little bit too weird – surely dogs and foxes would not be inclined to breed with one another despite their seeming similarities. As my MiL pointed out, “We share sixty per cent of our DNA with chickens, but you don’t see chickens and humans cross-breeding”. Well, no.
And in a second breathtaking lack of understanding about what the internet is for, Mr Fix suggested I could always have it concluded one way or another by trawling google for more information. Ah, Mr Fix. Dear heart, I wanted to disprove a wild theory. Does the internet really seem the best place to start for that?
Anyway, my exhaustive trawling of the internet came to this:
1. there hasn’t been one confirmed wild sighting
2. biology (including gestation times and basal temperatures) are against it as a lab experiment (please don’t try this at home kids, it’s really friggin’ evil)
3. most likely what has been spotted is a really fluffy fox all kitted out for winter
So I guess if/when I’m ever camping, I’m the first to be “for it” when an unexpected hybrid attacks – I’m that cynical-yet-doomed character who sits outside paying scant regard to their safety as the mythical local big cat/yeti/hzzzz/dox comes to attack them. Possibly I’ll be chewing on one end of my eye-glasses arm*.
As long as I get my fill of charred marshmallows before I go do down in a spray of dox-inflicted violence, I'll be happy. And at least I won't have to sleep in a tent.
* something I proved to myself on Friday night.
** note to self: buy eye-glasses
posted by gigglewick at
1:36 pm
9 Comments:
Isn't that Big Panther Cat Thing in the Blue Mountains? Or Picton? Or the Illawarra Escarpment? They are all around us, these lovely urban myths.
Also - you have lots of dinner parties. I'm jealous. Of your energy and hospitableness.
Also Also - I saw a fox on Saturday night. They are delightfully fluffy and cute (although less so to chickens and lambs and Native Furry Animals I would suspect), but I am biased towards foxes for personal reasons.
Actonb,
Let's take this in parts.
1. yes. there are several of them if the internet is to be believed.
2. not my dinner party. The dinner party of REAL LIFE, ACTUAL FRIENDS made by Mr Fix and I after only SIX MONTHS living in a new town. We are chuffed.
3. We have a family of foxes living in the paddock out the back of our place. It's all very Beatrix Potter. Except for the killing 'n' stuff.
So as well as Doxes you have Foxes in w'stcoats??? Even more jealous now...
What about The Big Panther in NSW? And the Loch Ness?
And now we have a 'Dox'. Ha.
Rosanna,
Yes. Yes, we do.
Is there no limit to the imagination of bored, possibly drunken loners?
Possibly drunken? I'm going to wager a bet on them being definitely drunken, if they can not tell the difference between a dog / fox.
Come to mention it, I have never seen a fox!
I see you enjoy camping for the same reason that I do.
The only difference if I have never sat outside a tent worrying about dox-inflicted violence.
I see this as a terrible failure of imagination on my part
What about the yowie? My sister recently met a guy who claims to be THE expert on the yowie. I totally love those stories though, bring them on.
Dude,
Possibly. I have blogged before about my severe aversion to camping, so I think I'm pretty safe from doxes.
Leilani,
InDEED! How did I forget the yowie? How does one come to be THE expert on the yowie, exactly?
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