The Fox and the Fuyus

I had a midnight persimmon pickin' party last night. Not as fun as it sounds LOL. 

Our camera went off and when Merl looked there was a fox stealing my prized Fuyu persimmons off my tree! These are hands down my favorite fall fruit and possibly my favorite fruit period, and my tree has a wonderful crop on it that I was planning to pick this weekend as they are reaching the very peak of ripeness. 

I looked out our bedroom window to see him snap off a branch with three persimmons and take off with them. A few minutes later he was back for more! Apparently his appetite for Fuyus rivals even mine!

Well, that was a jarring wake up call! And not only was I mad about being woken from my slumber, I was flat out pi$$ed about my prized Fuyus being swiped! 

I quickly grabbed my kitchen shears, a container, and had a hasty tactical meeting with Jade, which was basically summed up in two words, “Get ‘em!” and off we went to battle.

For Jade, two words was at least two too many. She was ready to go! She burst out the door fur up, and springs loaded! She had her growl set to “bring it on” and rocketed the perimeter of the metal fence then looked around the front yard for a likely culprit. I pointed to the lower yard and off she went like a streak of black lightning. I could hear the crushing of leaves and snapping of twigs and she checked the lower fence then she came back, gave the persimmon tree a good sniffing, and lit off again in another direction!

Meanwhile I stomped off to my pilfered tree, sporting a messy bedhead, snowman PJ pants, an oversized t-shirt and brandishing sharp scissors and a surly disposition. By gosh, if Jade didn’t scare off that fox, the sight of me surely would!

I could only clip off the lowest persimmons due to the deer deterrent fencing and netting we had installed. I noticed some of my precious delicacies already had several bites out of them! This fox really did enjoy Fuyus as much as I do--he was snacking as he was robbing! I can almost respect that!

While Merl stood by and enjoyed the show, I made a measly harvest, but felt at least slightly vindicated. Certainly this real life Swiper had gotten the message by now that this was an unfriendly location to grab a midnight morsel. But then again…he does seem to love those little orange fruits as much as I do…