Friendly foxes
Thanks to rax for the heads-up: tame foxes are available for sale as pets in the US. I read about what was either this program or a similar setup in one of my elementary psych textbooks, the other year. Apparently the foxes were created in a breeding program to select for the tamest, most cuddly-natured animals, and the present generations of fox are so good-natured and well-disposed toward humans that they can be house pets, much like dogs.
My personal code of behavior is still firmly of the opinion that even if I had thousands of dollars to throw around, I would still adopt a shelter pet rather than buying a bred animal. But since it's only hypothetical anyway, Awwww, cuddly foxes! I wuv their dainty itto paws and fluffy tails and ruffs and their pointy muzzles and big innocent eyes! I want to take each and every one of them up in my arms and gush over them like an overwrought grandma.
(Pet foxes tend to have irregular white specks and splashes in their otherwise silver-fox fur. They also have a tendency to floppy ears. Funnily enough, I remember my mother telling me about that in an early-years homeschooling lesson on genetics. Domesticated mammals tend to have floppy ears: as witness umpteen cute dog breeds, Dutch Lop rabbits as opposed to wild ones, some sheep and goats and pigs, etc. Same with spotted coats--cats, dogs, rabbits, other long-domesticated mammals tend to spots. Apparently the genetic makeup that's been created in human selection for a domesticated, less-aggressive animal tends to include the genes for floppy ears and spots. I found that kind of distressing after I'd thought about it for a moment. What if a floppy-eared, spotted dog who had been bred for generations to create the perfect pet suddenly decided that she wanted to become feral? Could she do it, could she change everything in her nature of which her floppy ears and spots were the outward sign? Or would her genetic makeup stop her from ever thinking about it? Horrible notion. Even if she could change her lifestyle, would the wolves and badgers and wonderfully proud and noble predators of The Wild accept her as a self-liberated wild animal, or would they fall over laughing at her nerve? I have a nasty idea that it would be the second option.)
My personal code of behavior is still firmly of the opinion that even if I had thousands of dollars to throw around, I would still adopt a shelter pet rather than buying a bred animal. But since it's only hypothetical anyway, Awwww, cuddly foxes! I wuv their dainty itto paws and fluffy tails and ruffs and their pointy muzzles and big innocent eyes! I want to take each and every one of them up in my arms and gush over them like an overwrought grandma.
(Pet foxes tend to have irregular white specks and splashes in their otherwise silver-fox fur. They also have a tendency to floppy ears. Funnily enough, I remember my mother telling me about that in an early-years homeschooling lesson on genetics. Domesticated mammals tend to have floppy ears: as witness umpteen cute dog breeds, Dutch Lop rabbits as opposed to wild ones, some sheep and goats and pigs, etc. Same with spotted coats--cats, dogs, rabbits, other long-domesticated mammals tend to spots. Apparently the genetic makeup that's been created in human selection for a domesticated, less-aggressive animal tends to include the genes for floppy ears and spots. I found that kind of distressing after I'd thought about it for a moment. What if a floppy-eared, spotted dog who had been bred for generations to create the perfect pet suddenly decided that she wanted to become feral? Could she do it, could she change everything in her nature of which her floppy ears and spots were the outward sign? Or would her genetic makeup stop her from ever thinking about it? Horrible notion. Even if she could change her lifestyle, would the wolves and badgers and wonderfully proud and noble predators of The Wild accept her as a self-liberated wild animal, or would they fall over laughing at her nerve? I have a nasty idea that it would be the second option.)