No, he could not reach it. But he wouldn’t give up. This one looked way too simple, the twigs and the basic items used to make it was what escaped his keen sense of smell. He had gotten away numerous times; Nets, those teeth traps, baits, he was so used to seeing them that he could smell them a mile away. One third of them had the hunter’s smell anyway. His sharp nose had always helped him out.
But this rope irked him. He was annoyed that he missed the clever setup, and that his swiftness had been against him this time. Quick as he was, the snare had caught his hind leg, else the rope could have been easily chewed on and once frayed he would have been free. How long did he have until the human, who set this trap, would be here to find and take him away? He had to think quickly. Jumping did not free the rope. The knot looked pretty simple too, if only he could reach it.
He was sure that this wasn’t the hunter’s trap. That smell was unique. Could be his kin, though, which made it all the more annoying. He hated the gloating voice of the hunter when he caught something in his traps. Thinking about the voice was not helping in any way.
And then he saw the last thing he wanted to see; one of the last things- a fox. He was done for. The fox looked like he was smiling. Why wouldn’t he, he had got his dinner handed to him. He saw that the fox was looking all around, sniffing and moving very slowly. He was almost hoping that the fox would move faster and end this once for all. The suspense was killing him. The fox finally got to him and it looked like it was peering at him curiously. ‘Haven’t you seen a trap before?’, he wanted to yell at him. That’s it, the fox seemed to be full and was just toying with him. Great! the hunter would get two pelts now seeing how the fox didn’t want to move from there.
He had been squirming subconsciously since he had spotted the fox but now that the fox was just sniffing around, he sat still as well. When the fox got to his hind leg and to the rope, that was when he realized that the fox was trying to get him to stay still. He could feel the fox’s teeth carefully nibbling at the rope and soon he was free. He couldn’t believe it! But he wasn’t going to think about it here, he dashed into the woods searching for the nearest burrow.
The fox liked rabbits no doubt, but he felt that he somehow enjoyed thwarting the hunter’s plans more. He liked his ‘night-time rescue’ walks. He didn’t know if it was common for foxes, but he found himself smiling all the time.
