This hungry little fox has been nursed back to health by a couple and is in ‘topping’ form after developing a taste – for PIZZA.
Jimmy the urban fox – which is actually a female – turned up in the couple’s quiet back garden three years ago.
The feral vixen was emaciated, suffering from a serious case of mange which left her with painful scabs and bald patches.
Maxine and Tony Hawker got some medication from the vet and mixed in into dog food and watched as Jimmy slowly gained strength and recovered by sunbathing on their lawn.
The loyal nocturnal predator now returns to the Hawker’s detached home most nights for dinner – and evens wanders into the conservatory looking for its favourite dish.
The vixen will skulk off with up to three pieces in her mouth at once – turning back to give them a cheesy grin – before taking some back for an orphaned cub it has adopted.
Maxine, 64, makes special trips to discount supermarkets to stock up on cheap cheese pizzas for Jimmy, which she cooks twice a week alongside her own dinner.
Grandmother-of-seven Maxine, from Yeovil, Somerset, said: “About three or four years ago two foxes came into our garden. One of them was quite ill with mange.
“We went to the vets and got some mange treatment and started treating it by putting the medicine on the food.
“Of course we were never sure if the fox was actually taking it as he would take the food away to eat, but we hoped for the best.
“Jimmy recovered and looked a lot better, and started to coming to get food more regularly, and has been coming ever since.
“It’s not every night – she’ll come for a few nights in a row, and then we won’t see her for a while.
“For the last four weeks she has started to come with a little cub. This dear little cub is only three or four months old.
“We did wonder because recently she was taking so much back and then coming and eating herself.
“She usually comes between 6pm and 9.30pm and sometimes first thing in the morning.
“When she comes in the winter, we see her because the outside security light comes on, but in summer we leave the conservatory door open and she will pop and and look at me as if to say ‘I’m here and ready for some food’.
“I used to feed her dog food but I read up about them and it said that foxes prefer sweet food.
“A few months ago I had the grandchildren around and I had made them a pizza and there was some left over, so I left it out for him.
“I saw how quickly she took it and he loved it, so now I buy cheap ones for her.
“I feed her the pizza twice a week. It’s ever so funny because when I leave dog food and she looks at me as if to say ‘where’s the rest?'”
Maxine, a retired teaching assistant, and her husband Tony, 67, a painter and decorator, like to feed the foxes because it reminds them of country life.
“I used to live in the countryside and I miss it very much, so anything that reminds me of the countryside makes me smile,” she said.
“A bit of country life makes me happy.”
They named the fox Jimmy before later realising it was a female.
