Remiel, The Fennec Fox, 1st Part....

 

NaBloPoMo Post #11

All The Nyans, Part Three

From the time Eler Beth was eleven years old, she has wanted a Fennec fox. As with anything she has an interest in, she began researching Fennecs and the legality of owning a Fennec in Indiana.

To my surprise, at the time she first started doing her research, there was a breeder in the Northern part of Indiana who, among other exotic animals, bred Fennecs. She also found one in Ohio and some other nearby states. We contacted the breeder in our state and got some information, and then about twice a year, she'd check to see if she was still breeding them.

About three years ago she started making definite plans for owning a Fennec. She contacted a local vet who works with exotics to make sure she would treat a Fennec; she would. She pretty much made a care manual with specific instructions for housing, training, feeding, and health care.

Two years ago we found out that the breeder in Indiana was no longer breeding Fennecs. But that was okay. By that time she had found a breeder in Florida who she liked the look of.  Summer runs Rare Earth Ranch, near Pensacola, and everything we read about her on her web site made us think she was the type of breeder we wanted to work with. Eler Beth got in touch with other Fennec owners who had bought their foxes from Summer, and then she got in touch with Summer, herself, last year. The two of them hit it off from the start. Summer said she could tell from the correspondence that Eler Beth was the type of person she wanted for one of her Fennecs. She has actually turned down prospective buyers who hadn't done their homework, or who expected more from a Fennec as a pet than they would get.


Fennecs are not legal to own in all states in the country. They are legal in Indiana, and we checked with our local officials to make sure there were no city or county regulations against them. There were not.

When she graduated from high school in 2014 Eler Beth saved most of her graduation money to go toward the Fennec, and in late fall of last year we sent Summer a deposit on a male Fennec. Summer's Fennec fox rates were higher than the other breeders, but from what we saw and read, we knew it would be worth it. When Eler Beth started working she saved as much as she could to add to her other savings so that she'd have the balance when her Fennec was ready.


She started getting the supplies she would need for her fox, and decided that she would name him Remiel. By the end of last year we were counting down the days to Remiel's birth -- praying there would be at least two males in the spring litter, because another purchaser had dibs on the first male. If there was only one male or none, she would have to wait until the summer litter was born. But assuming everything went according to plan, we knew that Remiel would be born around the second or third week of April, and we would be able to go down to get him by the end of May.

Pictures of Remiel on this page are current photos of him. I will post pictures of him as a newborn, as a baby, and of her first meeting with him in the next few blog posts.

 Eler Beth and Remiel, earlier this year.


To Be Continued....

~ ~ Lori