Gollum's lovechild

[lavendertook]

Hey ancalime8301!!!! Check this out!

On our way back from seeing RotK in June, Cali and I saw a strange gray creature running across the road in my headlights. My best guess was it was a hairless fox who maybe lost its fur from mange. Or maybe the love-child of Gollum and the fox that saw the hobbits as they journeyed out of the Shire.

Anyway, I just saw this video on the weather channel site, and this has got to be the very fellow, unless there's more than one of them. It was found near a hospital in our county, and the nearest hospital from where we saw it is about 4 miles away. Obviously, it's trucking its way over the area, trying to find the portal back to its home dimension. Seeing it here, it looks a little chubby to be a fox.

What do ya'll think it is? Weird, huh?

Edit: Just found an article on it with a pic and the video here.

Comments

[romeny.livejournal.com]

Fascinating but Yeech! *shudders*

[moit.livejournal.com]

Your turban icon is very sexy, romeny. I think you should wear one just like it to the moot.

[romeny.livejournal.com]

Ok then, I just went to a bridal shower where they asked folks to wear headbands/hats/headwear so why don't you propose something similar for the moot. It should be a hoot. lol

[moit.livejournal.com]

LOL We so should!

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Poor little guy must be cold in winter.

[addie71.livejournal.com]

You saw that? How cool! I think it is so neat looking.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

We didn't get to see it so close, and since I found out the place it was seen, and that's a good 5 miles away--I doubt it's the same one. It has such a pretty doe face, like Sneakers there.

[moit.livejournal.com]

LOL! I think it's a kangaroo.

But that's precisely why I moved OUT of Maryland.

Too many strange things. *shudders*

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Which is precisely why I belong here, my dear. :-D

[lovethosehobbit.livejournal.com]

How incredibly odd, but exciting too. To see something new in the lovely woods around your area. It looks so frightened in the video, poor thing.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

It has such a pretty doe-eyed face. It was crossing the road right by the Marriott and the place that video was taken was a good 5 miles away. So it might be another one.

[lovethosehobbit.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't that be cool?

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

"the love-child of Gollum and the fox that saw the hobbits"

MEEP. And it looks like it too.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

It does, except I think it does have a pretty little face.

[mews1945.livejournal.com]

Poor thing. It has a head like a deer.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

It does--so doe-eyed. It looks like Ryan's dog Sneakers.

[claudia603.livejournal.com]

ew, that is a super creepy spawn of Gollum! :D

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

It seemed creepy in our headlights. I think the one in the vid has a sweet little face. Must be so cold in winter.

[ancalime8301]

OMG! At least now it's confirmed that we saw something really, really strange. :D

It very well could be chubby for a fox, if it's been eating human food a lot. ;) Looking at pictures online, a fox with mange seems a definite possibility, but I never would've guessed that a fox's tail is that long!

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

You're right about its diet accounting for its happy little paunch. I've seen foxes with tails that looked bigger than their bodies, and with that white tip, it does seem likely to be a fox. What else would have ears like that? It's too small to be a coyote. Looking online some more, our little chupacapra might be a fox with mange, or it could be a genetic mutation for hairlessness, but whichever, it does seem to be getting around the continent. I found that the vid is from Doctors Hospital in Cheverly, so that's a good 5 miles away, so maybe there's more than one in the area and ours was a different fellow, but definitely of the same kind.

[ancalime8301]

It's a strange thought that there might be more than one! Though if it's got mange, that *is* contagious, so that might explain that part. ;)

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

It would indeed.

[ex-lbilover.livejournal.com]

My guess is that it is a fox with mange or possibly some hairless version of a fox. Too bad they didn't let someone draw blood before releasing it so it could be identified.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Yeah, though I bet it's glad they didn't. I worry about the poor thing getting through the winter.

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

Aw, I love it. What a sweet face. And I'm a sucker for animals with big eyes, big pointy ears, long skinny tails and dainty feet (yeah, like my cats). I don't care if it's bald. So are we. I even had a weakness for Mr. Bigglesworth, and this creature looks so much nicer than Mr. Bigglesworth. And we even like the same cuisine! I agree with those who said "hairless fox", like you. It has a gait like foxes we've seen around here. But I've seen a fox with mange and it still had hair, but big tufts missing, quite terrible looking. This animal looks smooth all over as if it had no fur at all. If it were completely bald from mange, it seems it would also look very sick and weak. I don't think this animal looked like it was on death's door. Let us know if there's any follow up, Lavender.

ETA: You mentioned baldness from mange; I really don't know a ding dang doodle about mange, except seeing some animals that had it. They looked ratty, but also sick. I wonder how sick it makes a person or animal, whether they can die of it if untreated, and whether hair loss is permanent after recovery. I'll have to look it up.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Ehehehehe--it does have that show siamese build similarity. (-: It is a very sweet face. Heee! I haven't seen the Austin Powers films so I had to look that up. I like the actor cat's name--Ted NudeGent. (-:

Your theory sounds good that it should look sicker if it had mange. The info I've found on the web so far is really not very clear if that's true or not for all forms of mange. I do think it should be scabbier and not so smooth looking whichever form of mange it has. On the other hand, this one might be doing a little better because it's being fed well by people. But it did seem to amble off rather slowly for having been trapped. I'd think a healthy fox would hightail it out of there, so to speak, so perhaps it is really ill.