Fox in a Box

Oh this day began in an unusual way, so I will tell it to you in the style of Seuss:

I was asked to box a fox!

We did not fight in a ring after a ding

I did not wrap him up for Christmas

It was simply time to clean up his room.

This is no ordinary fox, it is a fox with spunk

he made a big mess, and my oh my how it stunk

he is small and skinny and his fur is all matted

the fox is still healing and smelly from mange

it’s the mange that makes wild creatures sad

until they are cured of the mange that they had had.

So this fox was asked nicely and he walked into his box

I closed up the door and latched up the lock,

carried the fox from his room to the hall,

and to make it less scary, placed him facing the wall.

Then we cleaned and we mopped and we picked up the mess,

set it up all fresh with new toys, dig box, and clean bed,

brought fox back to his room, and let him go free

to be comfy where he’ll make a new mess, surely!

A coyote was next, his room was to be clean

the coyote was tidy and couldn’t be seen

in the back of his box where he lay on his side  

he could sniff, he could watch, he could hide

he refused to move for his room to be cleaned

did not get out of bed, barely lifted his head

when I changed the blankets around him.

Then it was time to go outside

to clean the recovery rooms of little racoons.

What’s with all this cleaning, I hear you think

I hardly do the dishes in my own home sink!

But for wild ones, large and small, who need to recover

under their fur or fins or scales or feathers

helping them get healthy and able again to be free

makes my heart grow like the Grinch’s – three sizes bigger.