3:30
Lonely baby fox calls for a friend and gets one
Butter was two weeks old when rain washed her out of her den. She reached a wildlife rescue center wheezing, coughing and far too small, and once she was well, the thing she wanted most was company. more
Two weeks of care turned the sick, underweight cub into a ball of energy, tearing into everything in reach as if to make up for lost time. She also kept trying to make friends with the people looking after her, which was the one thing they couldn't allow. A fox that grows too fond of people can't go back to the woods, so her keepers kept their distance and set out to find her a friend.
The first step was moving her outdoors. Butter took to the open air at once, and soon she was sending little calls into the trees, the sound of a cub asking for someone to play with. Nobody at the center could answer that call. It needed another fox.
Then Toffee arrived, the sole survivor of a car accident. She spent her first stretch in quarantine, and the staff grew nervous, because nobody knew how Butter would act around another fox. The keeper holding Toffee could feel her shaking with happiness. Once the two are together, Butter zooms back and forth while Toffee tries to keep up on her little legs.
SaveButter, the older of the two, takes on the big-sister job and looks out for Toffee. The pair play almost without stopping, and from then on they are never far apart.
Having another fox around changes Butter too. The cub who had been trying to befriend her keepers now has one of her own kind to be a fox with, which is exactly what the center had hoped for.
Before long the sisters start digging, hole after hole, trying to find a way out of the enclosure. They're healthy and strong now and plainly fed up with life behind a fence, and the weather and the timing are finally right.
Then the door opens. Butter is the first one out, and the two sniff around and dash into the trees together, free to come and go as they please. The staff stop handling them, but cameras around the property still catch the odd glimpse of the pair, and neighbors report seeing them too. Two foxes who found each other at the worst time of their lives have stayed together.
