Clover, the adorable fox kit found abandoned last week, is improving at Humane Society
Meg Jones
Had Clover had a better start to life, he would still be in the den made by his parents, growing up with his siblings and learning to hunt from his mother.
But the 3½-week-old red fox kit was found alone last week in the middle of a busy street on Milwaukee's southwest side suffering from hypothermia, dehydration, mange and an upper respiratory infection.
How Clover ended up in such dire straits is unknown, but it's likely the entire fox family was in distress and Clover was probably being carried by his mother from the den to another location when he was somehow abandoned. He was too young to walk and his eyesight was still poor at the time he was found.
But Clover is one lucky fox.
A week after the shivering ball of fur was found, he has gained half a pound, is recovering from the maladies and is weaning off liquid food. His eyesight has improved and his ears, laid back when born, have now perked up.
"He's like a true toddler now," said Crystal Sharlow-Schaefer, wildlife supervisor at the Wisconsin Humane Society's Wildlife Rehabilitation Center.
"Wild parents are good parents. For him to be in this shape, the fox family had to have been in crisis. He was a nugget of problems, but he has really rallied," Sharlow-Schaefer said.
On Wednesday, Sharlow-Schaefer pulled Clover out of his small cage where he was napping underneath a colorful blanket with a teddy bear. She had already fixed his lunch, the third of five daily meals, which included a couple of tablespoons of formula specifically for baby foxes and a tablespoon of wet cat food. Dessert was a dead mouse.
After a quick visit on a scale, Sharlow-Schaefer held the wiggly adorable kit and began stroking his head and body.
"Normally, Mom would be grooming, so we're trying to rough him up," said Sharlow-Schaefer, who then held a baby bottle to Clover as he greedily sucked down the formula.
Red foxes are found throughout Wisconsin and much of North America with litters averaging four to six kits.
Sharlow-Schaefer and Scott Diehl, director of the society's wildlife rehabilitation center, have been caring for Clover along with many other ill or injured wild animals. Others include a Canada goose with severe leg injuries from fishing line, a woodchuck with a large lesion on its hindquarters and an opossum with a frostbitten tail. The center handles 5,000 wild animals each year and is gearing up for its busy season in the summer.
Though the Wisconsin Humane Society occasionally gets injured or ill foxes, it's been several years since a kit was brought to the facility in Milwaukee. Some people have offered to adopt Clover, but Humane Society officials politely say that's not possible since wild animals need to be in the wild.
Clover will eventually be released back into the wild.
Often people will bring in wild baby animals they think are abandoned but are actually still being cared for by their parents, Diehl said. The state Department of Natural Resources provides information on how to tell if a wild animal has been abandoned.
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As antibiotics help Clover recover from mange and an upper respiratory infection, Sharlow-Schaefer and Diehl are trying to find other abandoned kits to pair up with Clover. But so far no wildlife rehabilitators in Wisconsin have baby foxes they're caring for; on Wednesday Sharlow-Schaefer contacted the DNR for help.
"Clover really needs to get one or more foster siblings," Diehl said. "He needs to know he's a fox and he needs to know how to act like a fox."