by Roland D. Hallee

Last week, a friend of mine, who is a member of the Fairfield Police Department and an aspiring photographer, was telling me how he was out looking to snap photos of bald eagles when he came upon two of them devouring what was left of a red fox on the side of the road. His stealth attempt to retrieve his camera proved fruitless as the eagles sped off on their way. That would have been a really great photo.

You’ve probably read stories about the cunning fox trying to outwit his animal brothers and sisters. Foxes no doubt got their crafty reputation from the way they look, with their long, thin faces and yellow eyes that have narrow slits for pupils. But in real life, foxes are more concerned with finding food than with playing tricks on anyone.

The red fox, Vulpes vulpes, is a lean, mean hunting machine that’s built for speed. About 3-1/2 feet in length, slinky and long-legged, they only weigh about 10 pounds full grown. But red foxes look a lot bigger because of their thick fur, which can range from deep brownish red to sandy blonde with black legs, feet, and backs of the ears and white underparts. Sometimes red foxes can even be all black or black with white tips, or have a dark brown “cross” across their backs.

Foxes are great hunters, and not only because they’re fast. Their large, upright ears allow them to locate a rustling sound within one degree of its true location, a trait that is not possible in humans. A fox can also hear a mouse squeal from 150 feet away.

Red foxes are solitary hunters that slowly approach their prey, creeping low to the ground and stretching their head high to spot the target. They pounce on the mouse, rabbit, or other prey with their forefeet.

Mice, especially meadow voles, are a popular food for red foxes, but their favorite dish is cottontail rabbit. They aren’t picky eaters either, and will eat berries and insects in the spring and summer, along with squirrels, songbirds, ducks and pheasants. In the north, they will also eat snowshoe rabbits, and they’ll even clean up after humans by eating garbage.

Nighttime is when red foxes are most active. They do most of their hunting from two hours before sunset to about four hours after sunrise, and travel up to nine miles a night. When they aren’t hunting, foxes like to rest in forests, ravines or woodlots, curling their long bushy tails around themselves to keep warm. The tail is also used for balance or as a signal flag to communicate with other foxes.

Fox families each have their own clearly marked home ranges that they defend from intruders, but they don’t usually fight. A group chase or a “threat display” – charging, growling, etc. – will generally do the trick. A fox family has a hunting range of about 150-400 acres, but in less diverse habitats, like farmland, one family might need up to 2-3 square miles.

Red fox don’t live in dens most of the year, but do set up nurseries in abandoned badger or woodchuck burrows when it’s time to have pups. Foxes breed in mid-January and have five or six pups in mid-March. The pups will hunt with their parents when they’re three months old and are ready to strike out on their own at eight months.

Red foxes can be found along fence rows, gravel roads, paths or treelines, especially after a light snowfall. Their tracks are very similar to that of a small dog. On spring or summer evenings, search along hillsides with binoculars. If you see a mound of fresh dirt in front of a dark hole, it could be a den entrance. But remember, be careful never to get too close and disturb the family. Remember, they are not fighters, but they are animals.

Once they have been discovered, they might pack up and move.

Treat red foxes with respect, and they could be a source of entertainment for you for quite some time.

by Katie Ouilette

Well, faithful readers, as WALLS writes this, Election Day hangs with us, promising to bring our USA the ‘united status’ that was intended by our Forefathers. On November 8, our beds may hold us close as we sleep, with promise of togetherness again.

Yes, this is as far as politics will go in WALLS. Actually, WALLS will now concentrate on the future for all of you faithful readers.

Happy news? Well, our son, Dean, and his wife, Donna, have ended their cruise of the Panama Canal and are back in Bellingham, Washington – and their daughter, Brittany, will be married in 2017, but not before ‘Apa Lew’ has the whole family from Washington State here in East Madison, Maine, to celebrate his 90th birthday.

Wow, WALLS, you said that is just the beginning of ‘HAPPY’ for next summer.

On October 23, Skeet Mullen, cousin of Katie Ouilette, joined Katie and Lew for a weekend with Cousin Ernie Mullen and his wife, Mal, in Grantham, New Hampshire. Wow, WALLS, do you know that the Valliere-Mullen clan will also have a reunion in Maine next summer? Sounds like a busy, busy summer on our horizon. Hmmm, did WALLS mention ‘the future’ a few lines ago?

Well, faithful readers, you know that WALLS is leading up to something that is not the best news for us Mainers. Yup, SNOW! We certainly saw that white-stuff in New Hampshire. The mountain ranges had their peaks covered in white…and we also noticed patches of white all along the way to ‘warmer Maine.’ Now, that is WALLS’ way of making you feel great about Maine and its Fall. Frankly, faithful readers, WALLS experienced a few ‘spits’ of snow even in Madison, but for sure it was a ‘reminder’ of what is ahead….nothing else.

Speaking of the need of warm weather, if you travel to Madison, you will see the beautiful view that has been opened for your pleasure by the Madison Electric Works. The view is panoramic and, surely, we have Calvin Ames and the MEW board of directors for that along the way. Frankly, that view makes one wonder why anyone would want to leave our beautiful state of Maine for another land that might be waiting with strong storms and waves and rain. Yup, it was for all of us to see on television and surely it made us happy to see the magnificent foliage that we were enjoying right here in our corner of the world.

by  Peter Cates

Connie Francis

The Exciting Connie Francis; MGM E3761, 12-inch mono LP of an album with a stereo edition, recorded 1959.

Now 77 but still active, Connie Francis is a living legend in pop music. Her 1957 megahit, the lovely Bert Kalmar/Harry Ruby Who’s Sorry Now, was one truly fine song, made extra special by CF’s totally sincere rendition, even if a tad smothered by sentimentality. That year, American Bandstand featured her lip-singing it and, as a six year old, I remember wishing, just momentarily, that she would adopt me as her little boy on a single mom basis – LOL!!!

BTW, with respect to Kalmar and Ruby, the 1950 Fred Astaire and Red Skelton musical biopic, Three Little Words, also from MGM (Hmm, interesting coincidence), and about the two songwriters, had a very stirring and expressively different performance of WSN by Gloria De Haven, very much in the Peggy Lee/Julie London tradition.

Exciting is a set of 12 very classic pop standards – Time After Time; Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen’s Come Rain/Come Shine; a very personal favorite, There Will Never Be Another You; Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, of which my copy of the late Karen Chandler’s early ‘50s Coral 45 is the gold standard; That’s All; All By Myself, etc. She performs with heartfelt expression but her timing and phrasing is sometimes leaving me wanting something more, an elusive nuance and magic that such balladeers as Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Ella Fitzgerald, Mel Torme and Doris Day had aplenty. But I really liked her singing of Time After Time. And the arrangements of the gifted Ray Ellis, like those beautiful ones for many of the Johnny Mathis late ‘50s hits, enhanced the album.

For me personally, the worst record she may have released – and one of the top ten worst in recording history, was the 1963 Brylcream Sing Along with Connie. First, it was an insult to the finest Sing Along group then popular, namely Mitch Miller’s. Secondly, the arrangements were hokey, cornballish and, most obviously, a rush job of rush jobs, much like most Christmas albums and TV specials. Thirdly, the Brylcream commercials flooded the American Bandstand. And finally, those little dabs made men’s hair greasier and grosser – forget pursue, the gals would all avoid ya!

The album would also impact the 1963 Christmas of the greater Cates family groups in the vicinity – the price for the record, when first released, was $1 when one purchased a tube of the ointment. Within a week, the price was down to ten cents without the required extortion.

A most “thrifty,’ well-to-do relative whose anonymity shall be honored in this instance, like the other sleeping dogs, bought a pile of the 10 centers and flooded every household with a copy as his way of good will to all men and women. Even after 30 years, no other copies of a record flooding the rubbish sales and Goodwills would be in such mint plus condition.

However, the story doesn’t end there. Rare record shops had their copies priced at 20 bucks and more by the mid ‘80s.

The singer’s life would be shattered by two horrific events. In 1974, a rapist would bust into her room at a New Jersey motel and brutally assault her, never to be found to this day. In 1981, her brother was murdered by two Mafia hitmen.

But her ability to move on and bless so many both here and abroad is only one of the reasons she is so worthy of honor for her life’s work.

Several selections, maybe the whole album, can be heard on YouTube, while prices on the Amazon page start at $4.39 for LP and $6.80 for CD.