Midsummer Fox

You’re sitting on your front porch, looking out on the meadow just beyond your garden with the deepest green grass and shrubs. The sun is setting and the air finally loosens its grip on this hottest day of the year. Sparrows dart up from the dense grass, nabbing one of the dozens and dozens of grasshoppers bouncing from shoot to shoot. Two pointed black ears peak just above the grass, only for a moment. Then again, ten meters away, a flash of amber fur bursts out and up from the grass, curves in midair, then stretches out again in a long dive, vanishing again into the thick brush. The cry of a bobwhite quail tells you that the fox has made it through the heatwave.