On Friday night, we learned of a kind, elderly lady in Orpington named Gwendoline who had what she believed to be orphaned fox cubs in her garden.
The cubs were frequently seen stumbling around at all hours and whimpering loudly, and when cubs are vocalising non-stop for days, sadly it's often a sign that they have lost their mum. Worse still, Gwendoline's neighbour had found a dead fox in their garden suspected to be the missing vixen. Gwendoline had tried contacting the RSPCA but they'd been unable to attend, leaving the cubs wandering aimlessly and crying for days.
Although the report came in late at night, our volunteers Rachel and Matt along with daughter Mya set off straight away to look for the cub in Gwendoline's garden. It required some fence hopping for Matt - he must have looked like a burglar to anyone looking out of their window - but ultimately one cub was found and brought into the care of the GWN. This poor boy was ravenously hungry, very dehydrated, and crying pitifully for his lost family.
We were then made aware by an ambulance driver at the Fox Project, the lovely Taz, that a cub of similar age, with severely infected eyes, had been picked up only around fifty yards away in a nearby park. Named Willow, she was even following people walking by, clearly looking for help. Believing the cubs to be siblings, we decided to coordinate with the Fox Project to reunite them the following morning.
No sooner had Rachel, Matt and Mya dropped the cub to a Fox Project volunteer in Swanley than Gwendoline got in touch again. A third cub had appeared in her garden!
So the tenacious trio went back again and caught the third cub, before transporting her to the Fox Project Cub Unit in Kent, reuniting all three siblings. Gwendoline named this cub Alan, after her late husband.
How appropriate that this little family were kept together by a family of rescuers in Matt, Mya and Rachel.
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