We were going to my Grandmother's house (I was under the impression we were merely going to help her in her garden for a few hours...) and I remembered that Miehiera was due for her second vaccination shot. I pointed this out to my dad but said it could wait, though my dad brought up the suggestion,
"Why don't we take her with us?"
I didn't see a problem. At first we packed into our little car with a bag of all sorts of stuff we would need, but not even being in the crate and in the car for more than a few minutes. Miehiera promptly urinates, defecates, dumps her water bowl and begins growling and biting. This level of aggression I hadn't seen since the first week I got her.
My dad decided he didn't want to drive one hour to my Grandma's with a stinky, angry fox, so we took the truck instead. We put her in a large plastic crate meant for medium sized dogs and placed it in the bed of the truck, held down with bungee cords.
Our first (unexpected) stop before we left town was the gas station. I was not very happy with this as I try to avoid public contact when I have her, especially when she was as agitated as she was.
We had about three people come up to us.
"Oooh, what kind of dog is that?" One lady asked. I hesitated, and was very tempted to answer that she was a rare breed of spitz. My dad chimes in, "It's not a dog, it's a fox."
"Oh, she's cute."
Two guys came up and went, "What the heck is that?" Then before I could respond my dad sang "A fox~!"
I had to sit there and talk to these guys while my dad went into the gas station to get something to drink. He took about 10 minutes to get two sodas and red bull.
These guys, though nice, curios and thought she was beautiful, would stick their fingers and face near her cage, which I gently pushed away.
"I wouldn't recommend that, she's usually very sweet but doesn't like being inside small cages. She might bite." I'm shy, but I gently kept them away whenever they did what they did, as Miehiera was growling and snapping at even us. I was concerned about someone calling the police while I sat there for 10 minutes, answering questions and standing in front of our license plate (yes, I'm very paranoid. )
It's not like Miehiera is illegal - she's perfectly legal, but I've heard all too often of legal animals being confiscated. Miehiera is somewhat aggressive towards people she doesn't know, even more so in her crate, so the last thing I'd want is her to get confiscated, then bite someone and be destroyed for rabies testing.
Though, the guys explained that they had a pet raccoon (taken from the wild, far more illegal than a captive bred arctic fox. )
Once my dad -finally- came outside ("They overcharged me on the red bulls!"), we headed over to Tractor Supply Co., where I buy Miehiera's vaccines and wormer. TSC is not as in the public eye as a busy gas station at an intersection. Just my luck, my dad bumps into his co-workers and shows off my baby.
Face-palm.
I go inside while my dad stays outside with Miehiera, and buy her vaccine as well as a water bottle meant for rabbits, as she kept spilling her water. It was fairly hot and I didn't want her to dehydrate.
Miehiera attacked the water bottle savagely, growling and gnawing it. She eventually realized it gave her water.
There were no more stops until I arrived at my Grandma's house. At that time it was just my Grandma, all who I had expected it to be, but soon people started to show up. And more. And more. Eventually there were about 10 people.
I left Miehiera in the bed of the truck for a few minutes, feeding her some treats. At this point she had calmed down quite a bit, no longer growling but I was not going to risk my fingers. I cooed gently to her, until my three rather rude uncles came up and started acting more obnoxious than the guys at the gas station, poking their hands and faces by her cage. I was ready and like before, gently pushed them away.
I pulled Miehiera's cage out and set it on the ground, preparing to get it out, but no sooner did my two little cousins, 4 and 2, come running up and trying to pet her. I gently told them no, as she could bite them. I turned my back to get my gloves and my 2 year old cousin was squatting by the cage and reaching towards it, and I quickly had to move him away.
At this point, I was not pleased with my dad. I thought this was just going to be my Grandma, him and I, but this was quickly turning to a party, which I was not ready for and if I had known, I would have not brought Miehiera.
Not. Pleased. At all.
I took Miehiera out (she bit through my Welder's glove). Once she was out of the cage and in my arms she calmed down significantly.
From that point on, I ran around with Miehiera on my grandma's property (she lives out in the middle of no where). I was not too concerned about worms or her picking up something as all her cats are wormed, as well as her dogs wormed and UTD on their shots. My grandma loves her animals.
Miehiera also got her shot, which I was again proud of how well she took it, though she doesn't care much for my grandma.
Miehiera also, based on her behavior from interacting with various people at the party (I'm surprised at how curious she was; she wanted to come say hello to everyone and nibble their toes, but my grandma's mean cocker spaniel was having none of it.), seems to like women significantly more than she likes men. She loves me, tolerates my grandma, gets along with my best friend, mother and didn't growl at any of the women who approached her the entire trip (except for me, lol, but then again I was the only one who let me pet her), and she took quite a liking to my cousin, 9 years old and terrific with animals.
Though my cousin was too scared to pet her, though I assured her Miehiera probably wouldn't bite at that point, as she was behaving, licking my hand, playing and had her eyes shining and ears perked the entire time after she was taken out of her crate. Miehiera constantly tried to follow her around, though it might have been because she had her toes exposed because she was wearing sandals. Either way, it was cute.
The highlight of Miehiera's day was the giant pile of sand and gravel that my Grandma had in her yard. My Grandma didn't mind her playing in it at all, and Miehiera had a blast, digging in it, rolling in it, laying in it, playing with me and pouncing at imaginary mice in the sand. She was out and playing from 5:30 until the sun went down at about 10 (with the exception of when we all ate; I put her up and put her away in my grandma's camper so that the bugs wouldn't bite her and no one would bother her while she ate.)
Other than being grumpy when we started and hating the crate, Miehiera behaved beautifully, having an interest in everyone, playing, being sweet and overall even though I didn't think Miehiera was ready for a large social event, she did better than I thought she would have.
I took tons of pictures, those most came out blurry as a result of Miehiera constantly being on the move and the camera's own crappiness. Got a few good ones though. c:
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| Watching all my family, wanting to come and join them. :'( |
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| Watching the cats. |
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| Pure elegance. |
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| Queen of the Hill! |
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