My little foxy loves 🦊

Saying goodbye to keep them safe

Hello loves, happy Friday!

I’m sharing a letter I sent out yesterday to my Love Letter peeps (you might have seen it!) because I wanted to add a million photos of my beloved foxes.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do — oof, it’s been an emotional week!

There’s a journal prompt at the end 👍

This week something important happened. As some of you know, I’ll be leaving London in the spring and relocating to Bath. I’ve lived at my current address for nearly seven years and have been back in London since 2012, so the move feels BIG, emotionally and logistically.

I’ve been making lists of everything I need to get done and right at the top was “sort out the foxes”.

From day one there have been foxes living in my garden. It’s been my daily joy to see them living so close, and sadly it’s also been an on-going "concern" for my neighbours, especially since we had SEVEN(!) babies in 2021.

My neighbours do not love the foxes like I do and I get it! I really do.

City foxes are extremely common here in the UK but we have such little space. I live in a terrace, so I share walls with my neighbours on both sides, and our gardens are divided by flimsy fences. We all live in each others pockets, and when there are teenage foxes chewing everything in sight it’s not fun.

Again, I get it. 🤪

I’ve been the foxes’ protector during my tenancy here, and knowing I’m leaving made protecting them a priority. And the best way I can do that is to deactivate their den(s) in my garden so future tenants do not take any extreme measures against them.

Fortunately my landlord wanted to help so this week the fox deterrent team returned. Their first visit was back in 2022 and the deactivation did work for a whole year! But then the foxes came back because they’re not stupid :-)

Once again the team were AMAZING. All vegans — “we’re a vegan company” The main guy even had a fox tattoo on his forearm ❤️ — and their number one concern was ensuring the dens and tunnels were safely collapsed, and the foxes were not harmed.

The ground under the (fake) lawn was riddled with tunnels — it was incredible to see! As they carefully removed the turf FOUR foxes came out and jumped over the fence. The fox tattoo guy said he’s never seen so many adults living together like that.

He also said they’d be fine as they’ll have other dens they use nearby.

This morning I felt a bit heart broken as I looked out onto a fox-less garden. But I also knew I’d done the right thing and that gives me some peace. 🥹

As the team said, you never see a starving fox in a city. They are incredibly resilient and resourceful and as they’ve always been in this suburb they’ll be just fine without me.

And this way I know future tenants won’t hurt them.

My landlord even said he’ll be more mindful about keeping the garden fox-proofed going forward. He doesn’t know I’m leaving yet but he’s honestly been the best landlord I’ve ever had so I know I’ll leave on good terms.

So that’s a big item off my list and the Bath dream is getting closer ❤️

Today’s question

Can you think of a time in your life when you had to leave something or someone behind? Perhaps you knew it was the right thing to do, but it still hurt like mad… How did you find peace in the letting go? What helped?

I’d actually love to know xo

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Don’t forget: if you upgrade from a free or monthly subscription to an ANNUAL subscription you’ll get complimentary access to my end of year workshops!

First one, Unravel the Year, is on the solstice, December 21st ✨