Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 186, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 August 1920 — CAT RAISED FOXES [ARTICLE]

CAT RAISED FOXES

Puss Proved Good Foster Mother to Valuable Cubs. I - Fur Farmer Was Afraid to Take a Chance, So He Called in Tabby and the Difficulty Was Solved, to His Advantage. There are perhaps 10 or 12 of the famous fur farms of Alaska. One of them, situated in the Tannana valley, a mile and a half from Fairbanks, consists of ten acres of cleared land, the greater part of which is covered with pens In which the animals live. From a distance the fox farm looks like'a huge thicken yard with walls of woven wire and hencoops of varipus sizes inside. Each pen is 50 feet long, 8 feet wide and about 10 feet high. The wire is of tough steel and is sunk about four feet in the ground, and then bent so that it runs Inward under the ground for about two feet to prevent the foxes from digging out. . At the top the wire has an overhang of two feet to prevent the captives from climbing over. Each pen has a kennel, the entrance to which Is a chute or a wooden pipe a foot square. Only one pair of foxes live in each pen. They are very timid and must be handled carefully. Most of the fox farmers will not permit strangers to enter their property for fear they will frighten the animals. Some foxes, however, become so tame that strangers can handle them. The fox babies are the size of kittens, and have long, bushy tails, little sharp noses, and eyes that sparkle like jet. One litter of foxes was, it is said, mothered by a cat. There were three of the babies, each of which, when grown, was worth from SSOO to SI,OOO. Their mother was so nervous that Jhe farmer feared she might kill her.young; and so he had them taken away from her and given to the cat tn place of her kittens. The cat had adopted them and played with them as If they were really her own. For such emergencies it is necessary to have cats about a fox farm. Because he would not pay a high price for a cat one man in eastern Canada lost five little foxes that might have proved worth a small fortune. The fox mother had died and the owner of the only cat In the vicinity declined to sell her for less than SSOO. The unreasonable price angered the fox farmer and he refused to pay It. The foxes are fed with salmon, moose meat, horse meat, rabbits, carrots ' and turnips. A common feed Is rice and rabbit cooked together In a stew. One farm feeds 16 rabbits and 15 pounds of rice a day to 52 foxes. The stew is given cold morning and eveThe foxes come out of theli kennels; seize the food, carry it Inside with them and afterward return for more. The land, kennels and machinery of the farm near Fairbanks cost SIB,OOO and the breeding animals $37,000. There are always about 200 animals, foxes, martens and others, and only two men are needed, to care for them. —New York Evening Post.