Mr Dog and the Faraway Fox

by Ben Fogle

  Shelly thought hard. ‘If the fox didn’t take Crawly, then who did?’

  ‘I haven’t the Mr Foggiest!’ said Mr Dog. ‘Ferdy didn’t strike me as an aggressive fox. He seemed very friendly indeed. And if there is a mean animal doing things round here, I don’t want the neighbours blaming an innocent fox and hurting him.’

  ‘So what will you do?’ asked Shelly.

  ‘Find him and tell him to stay far away,’ Mr Dog decided. ‘That way he can be safe.’

  ‘But what about you?’ said Shelly. ‘If you’re out at night alone with a mean animal on the loose… you won’t be safe at all!’

  Mr Dog rested his paw all day. He ate a hearty meal of kibble that evening, and scraps from Minnah’s plate too. He knew he would need all his energy for a night on the trail of Ferdy the fox!

  Once Minnah had gone to bed, Mr Dog squeezed out through the catflap again and into the night. His nose twitched. He couldn’t smell Ferdy nearby. He couldn’t smell any other foxes either.

  I’ll go back to the place where I met him last night and try to pick up the trail from there, thought Mr Dog.

  The garden was still covered in holes. Mr Dog sniffed again: Ferdy’s scent was getting stronger. ‘The nose knows!’ he chuckled, and carried along the street, turning his head this way and that. Yes, he had the scent now for sure! He quickened his step and turned into a driveway that ran down the side of a house. He followed it through a gate that stood ajar and into an overgrown back garden.

  And then he stopped.

  The back door to the house stood open. There were lights on inside. Through the lounge window, he saw a man sitting on the sofa watching television.

  Mr Dog looked around the garden and sniffed again. Where had Ferdy gone?

  Suddenly, he heard an almighty shriek from upstairs. ‘Oh, NO!’ a young boy yelled. ‘There’s a fox up here!’

  Mr Dog’s ears flew up. ‘So that’s where Ferdy is,’ he breathed. ‘That crazy fox has gone inside the house!’

  Chapter Four

  A FRIGHT IN THE GARDEN

  Mr Dog watched from the garden as the man in the lounge jumped up, grabbed a broom from the kitchen and ran upstairs. ‘Where is that fox?’

  A door slammed, and the boy’s frightened voice could be heard: ‘I’ve shut it in the bedroom, Dad.’

  ‘I’ll get it out!’ said the man.

  Oh, dear, thought Mr Dog. I don’t know why Ferdy went into someone’s house, but he could get badly hurt! With a few woofs to the patron saint of scruffy but well-meaning dogs, Mr Dog bounded into the house and raced up the stairs.

  The dad had thrown open the door, holding the broom like a club. Ferdy was cowering in a corner of the room, wide-eyed and terrified.

  ‘WOOF!’ Mr Dog jumped up at the dad and his paws pushed him into the bedroom. The dad went staggering forward. As he did so, Ferdy ducked through his legs and bolted past Mr Dog, back out on to the landing. The boy screamed again. Mr Dog herded Ferdy back down the stairs.

  ‘Wait a minute,’ said Ferdy, going into the kitchen. ‘I smell something nice.’

  ‘What?’ Mr Dog stared in amazement as Ferdy stopped to grab the remains of a roast chicken from the kitchen table. Already the man with the broom was running back downstairs. ‘Come on, Ferdy, we have to go!’

  Mr Dog ran into the garden and Ferdy raced after him with the carcass in his jaws.

  ‘This way!’ hissed the fox, heading for the fence at the back of the garden. Mr Dog saw a hole had been dug there.

  ‘I’ll get you, you vermin!’ the dad bellowed, waving his broom.

  Ferdy slipped through the hole with ease, his scruffy tail disappearing with a flourish. Mr Dog tried to squeeze after him, but the hole was too small! The dad was getting closer. Mr Dog dug deeper and finally managed to drag himself through into the next garden. He lay on the dark lawn, panting for breath.

  ‘First thing in the morning, I’m blocking this hole!’ the dad said from the other side of the fence. ‘And I’ll fix the catch on that back door right now…’ He turned and stomped away.

  ‘Ferdy?’ Mr Dog whispered. ‘Where are you?’

  ‘Here!’ Ferdy’s head popped up happily from a flowerbed and he dropped the chicken carcass. ‘Thanks for your help back there, dog. Weird, huh? Why were those two humans so shouty?’

  ‘I’ll tell you why.’ Mr Dog padded over to join him. ‘They were shouty because a wild animal just walked into their private property uninvited! They were scared of you.’

  ‘But why? I was only seeing if they had any food.’ Ferdy frowned. ‘Ryan used to feed me all the time.’

  ‘Who’s Ryan?’ said Mr Dog.

  ‘A man. He was my friend,’ said Ferdy. ‘He was cool.’

  Mr Dog raised his bushy brows. ‘He fed you?’

  ‘Yes! I used to visit Ryan every night. Sometimes he would feed me right from his hand!’ Ferdy grinned at the memory. ‘After a while, Ryan just left his front door open so I could wander in and say hello…’

  ‘I see.’ Mr Dog felt suddenly sad. He understood now why Ferdy would wander into a stranger’s house without fear. Ryan had started to tame this urban fox. He had given food freely and encouraged Ferdy to enter his home. Now Ferdy thought that all humans were friendly and that it was safe to approach them for food or shelter. He was wrong.

  ‘Ferdy, you must listen to me. Not everyone in town likes foxes as much as Ryan. You can’t just…’ Mr Dog stopped talking, puzzled. Ferdy had started digging up the flowerbed, scattering soil and blooms all over the place. ‘Whatever are you doing now?’

  ‘Don’t mind me.’ Ferdy picked up the chicken carcass again and dropped it into the hole. ‘I’m just burying this roast chicken.’

  ‘What?’ Mr Dog shook his head. ‘Why would you do that?’

  ‘We foxes like to know we have a spare meal in reserve,’ Ferdy explained, filling the hole with mud. ‘I have secret dinners buried all over this neighbourhood.’

  Mr Dog held up a paw to stop him. ‘If you have more food than you need, then why did you knock over a food bin last night?’

  Ferdy blinked. ‘I didn’t, Mr Dog.’

  ‘Are you sure?’ said Mr Dog. ‘You dig holes in people’s gardens, you take from their houses, you steal tortoises…’

  ‘I told you I found that tortoise!’ Ferdy insisted. ‘I only wanted to play with it.’

  ‘That tortoise was badly hurt!’ Mr Dog said sternly. ‘Your behaviour is upsetting a lot of people, Ferdy.’

  ‘But I’m a fox!’ Ferdy protested. ‘How do people expect me to behave?’

  ‘They’re not really sure.’ Mr Dog tried to explain. ‘Humans often forget that the world around them is wild. They build towns and cities and don’t think of the animals there. And if those animals cause problems, they try to get rid of them.’ He gave Ferdy a smile. ‘You said you’d been far away. Perhaps you should go back there for a while till things calm down?’

  ‘No! Don’t say that!’ Ferdy looked upset. ‘I’m never going far away again. You’re a nasty dog to say that I should.’ He turned his back on Mr Dog and ran away into the night.

  ‘Ferdy, wait!’ Mr Dog tried to chase after the fox, but his paw was stinging from his desperate digging.

  Ferdy had gone.

  With a sigh, Mr Dog went back to the hole in the fence and carefully wriggled under and into the dark garden. Then he squeezed through the gate and sadly headed home.

  Chapter Five

  ATTACK IN THE ALLEYWAY

  Mr Dog walked back slowly. It was nearly midnight, and the streets of the city were quiet. Mr Dog retreated into shadowy alleyways whenever he spotted people – he didn’t want anyone reporting a stray dog on the loose!

  He’d just reached the street where Minnah lived when he heard a group of people walking his way. Mr Dog ducked down a dark alley between two houses and waited for them to pass.

  Then he heard a kerfuffle behind him. He couldn’t see through the darkness but he heard a cla
tter of claws, and a loud bang as something fell over. The smell of soggy leftovers covered the scent of the culprit.

  It’s another food-bin attack! Mr Dog realised. His hackles rose and he took a step further into the shadows. ‘Who’s there?’ he growled.

  Suddenly, he caught a whiff of fox…

  The next thing Mr Dog knew, something was rushing towards him out of the darkness. It charged him aside, and he found himself thrown against the wall. Shocked and shaken, Mr Dog rolled over and jumped up with a bark. What hit me? he thought. Then he caught a glimpse of something small and furry trotting down the alley towards him from the direction of the street.

  Mr Dog woofed in surprise. ‘Ferdy?’

  ‘Hello!’ said Ferdy brightly, coming closer.

  Just then a door handle turned and a light flicked on. A side door to the house swung open to reveal a frowning woman. She stared at the food all over the ground… at Mr Dog, looking up at her and wagging his tail as fast as it would go… and then she saw Ferdy.

  ‘AAAAGH! A fox!’ The woman took a step back inside her house.

  ‘Hello!’ Ferdy said brightly, trotting up to her without fear. ‘Do you have any food for a friendly fox?’

  The woman couldn’t understand him, of course. All she saw was a fox prancing straight towards her – and she screamed as loudly as she could!

  Mr Dog jumped in front of the fox, blocking his path. ‘Come on, Ferdy, we’d better go. The D-O-G part of my name is short for “DO Get a shift on!”’

  The dog and the fox ran from the alleyway, back into the street. The woman screamed again. Lights were coming on at the windows of the houses close by. Mr Dog and Ferdy hid inside some bushes, panting for breath.

  ‘I must admit, I didn’t expect to see you again tonight,’ said Mr Dog.

  ‘I came after you to apologise,’ said Ferdy. ‘I know you were only trying to help me. I shouldn’t have gone off in a huff like that.’

  ‘You shouldn’t have gone up to that lady, either,’ Mr Dog told him. ‘The neighbours will not be pleased.’

  ‘The lady might have been friendly,’ Ferdy argued. ‘Like Ryan was.’

  ‘But she wasn’t. I tried to tell you – a lot of people are scared of foxes.’ Mr Dog put a paw on his. ‘However, I am very pleased that you came along. I think you scared off whatever attacked me down that alley. Did you see what it was?’

  ‘No,’ said Ferdy. ‘I think it was grey… or maybe white… the size of a cat… or an oversized rat…’

  ‘And it vanished into thin air,’ said Mr Dog thoughtfully. ‘Well, whatever it is, I suspect that you will be taking the blame for its latest actions.’ He frowned, and his ears drooped. ‘Come to think of it, so will I!’

  ‘You should come with me to find Ryan,’ said Ferdy. ‘He looked after me before. He will look after me again, I just know it.’ He threw back his head and screamed his eerie cry. ‘I’m just asking any other foxes who might know where he is.’

  ‘It’s hard to find just one person in a city,’ said Mr Dog. ‘He might have moved far away.’

  ‘Don’t say “far away”,’ said Ferdy. He snorted sadly. ‘I hate far away.’

  ‘But why?’ asked Mr Dog.

  ‘I told you. I’ve been far away and I didn’t like it.’ Ferdy sighed. ‘On the journey there, I thought it would be fun. But it wasn’t.’

  The two animals lay down in silence for a while, until the lights in the houses went dark again, and the woman had cleaned up the food that had spilled from her bin. They made a funny pair, the dark dog and the ginger fox, huddled together in the undergrowth with four white paws between them.

  Finally, the street was silent again. Mr Dog stuck out his sizable nose from the bushes, checking the way was clear.

  His nostrils caught the scent of another fox. A fox who was very close by…

  ‘Hey.’ An old foxy face pushed through the bushes. His ginger fur was flecked with silver, and a scar ran down from his right eye. ‘I heard screaming.’ He looked at Ferdy. ‘Was that you, boy? You want information, is that right?’

  ‘Yes, sir,’ said Ferdy.

  ‘Well, Old Foxy Loxie knows a lot of things. And what he doesn’t know, he can find out…’ The sly old face smiled a yellow-toothed smile. ‘For a price.’

  Mr Dog was wary. ‘What sort of a price?’

  ‘Food. Scraps. Chickens.’ Old Foxy Loxie dribbled with delight. ‘Mmm, I love me some chickens.’

  ‘I just buried some roast chicken scraps,’ said Ferdy. ‘If you can find my human friend Ryan for me, they’re yours.’

  ‘I’d do ANYTHING for chicken,’ said Old Foxy Loxie. ‘You got yourself a deal, kid.’ He threw back his head and gave the same sort of eerie scream that Mr Dog had heard a lot of lately. ‘I’ll get back to you.’

  With that, the old fox pulled his face out of the bushes and slunk away.

  ‘Well, that’s a promising lead,’ said Mr Dog.

  Ferdy grinned. ‘I knew stealing the roast chicken from that house was a good idea!’

  ‘It was a terrible idea!’ Mr Dog told him. Then he sighed. Ferdy just didn’t have a clue about how to stay safe around humans. ‘Anyway, I’d better start heading back home. I hope Old Foxy Loxie can help you. In the meantime, do you think you can stay out of trouble?’

  ‘I’ll try.’ Ferdy grinned and sniffed the air. ‘OOOH! I can smell earthworms again.’ Straight away, he started digging up the lawn beside the bushes.

  ‘Not now! It’s someone’s garden!’ Mr Dog shook his head. ‘Go on, get away from here… and good luck!’

  Chapter Six

  ACROSS THE ROAD OF DOOM

  Mr Dog made it home and sneaked back inside the catflap without waking anyone, even the tortoises.

  Shelly and Crawly’s owner, Dan, came to collect them the next morning. He had already heard talk of last night’s fox sighting.

  ‘Yasmin at number twenty-two told me the animal came right up to her door, bold as brass!’ Dan said. ‘She says it was ready to attack her. But she screamed and scared it off.’

  What rot! thought Mr Dog, growling quietly.

  Dan looked down at him. ‘She said that she also saw a dog that looked like you last night…’

  Mr Dog looked up at him with his widest eyes as if to say, Who, me?

  ‘I’m sure it wasn’t my poorly boy here,’ said Minnah firmly. ‘He’s a hero. We’d never have found Crawly without him!’

  ‘That’s true.’ Dan gave Mr Dog a stroke on the head. ‘Well, Minnah, I’m going to add extra fencing round my garden and put chicken wire into the soil around it so nothing else can burrow through. My tortoises will be safe and secure from now on.’

  ‘A tortoise loves shell-ter,’ joked Shelly, and Crawly chortled happily.

  Mr Dog gave a yap of farewell as the tortoises were taken away in their carry-cases.

  Minnah saw Dan to the door, said goodbye to Shelly and Crawly, then came back to Mr Dog in the kitchen. ‘I hope it wasn’t you outside last night,’ Minnah said. ‘Still, your paw does look a little bit sore again. I think I’m going to board up the catflap, just in case.’

  Mr Dog sighed. I’m a prisoner!

  While he was grateful to Minnah for all she’d done, he couldn’t help but envy Ferdy roaming free in the city. He hoped the fox would stay out of trouble.

  That night, he was just drifting off into dreams of chasing invisible animals down alleyways when he heard a scuffling at the catflap. His ears twitched, and a growl started to build in his furry throat.

  Then he heard a quiet voice call from outside: ‘Mr Dog? It’s me, Ferdy.’

  ‘Ferdy!’ Mr Dog frowned and crossed quickly to the catflap. ‘My dear old chap, what are you doing?’

  ‘I’m pulling off the wood that’s blocking this flap in the door so you can come out.’ Ferdy was panting with excitement. ‘Old Foxy Loxie has found Ryan’s new home, here in the city. He gave me directions, and I gave him the roast chicken I buried. But I’m scared I’ll g
et into trouble again by myself.’ Ferdy whined softly. ‘Will you come with me?’

  Mr Dog hesitated. He knew that Minnah didn’t want him to go outside. But then it wasn’t his fault if the catflap covering had been pulled down, was it?

  ‘Of course I’ll come with you.’ Mr Dog smiled. ‘Let’s go!’

  Ferdy led Mr Dog through the streets into an unfamiliar part of the city. ‘Old Foxy Loxie was pretty sure that Ryan lives on the other side of the Road of Doom,’ he said brightly.

  ‘The Road of Doom?’ Mr Dog bunched his bushy eyebrows. ‘I don’t like the sound of that!’

  Ferdy moved on through the city with a fox’s speed and stealth, flitting along the streets like a small red shadow. When someone came in sight, he would pause behind a parked car or a tree, then dart across to the next piece of cover he spied. Mr Dog did his best to keep up. His paw was feeling better for the extra soak he’d been given, but, all the same, he tried to step on it as lightly as he could.

  As houses gave way to office buildings, Mr Dog became aware of a roaring, whooshing noise getting louder in his floppy ears. ‘Cars,’ he muttered. ‘Lots and lots of cars.’

  Ferdy squeezed under some railings. There was a very wide road on the other side with another line of railings running down the middle. Mr Dog counted three lanes on one side and three more on the other. Cars were whizzing past in both directions. Their headlights dazzled his eyes.

  ‘This must be your Road of Doom,’ said Mr Dog. ‘A big main road! It’s not safe to cross here. The humans will have a footbridge, or some funny black-and-white stripes to walk on somewhere…’

  ‘You’re such a pet!’ said Ferdy. ‘I’m sure it’ll be fine.’

  With that, he dashed straight out into the road!

  ‘Ferdy!’ Mr Dog howled. He was about to rush after the fox when a truck came zooming past in front of him! Dust blew in his face. Another car quickly followed, blocking Mr Dog’s view. He heard a squeal of brakes and the angry beep-beep of a horn as a motorbike swerved sharply and the driver almost lost control. Horrified, Mr Dog saw that Ferdy was about to cross the third and final lane. The little fox hadn’t noticed a coach hurtling towards him…