The Beautiful Fox

Years ago, as the woods first began to grow tall, a beautiful Fox walked through the trees. He knew he was beautiful because all the other animals would tell him as he walked past. The sun shone down upon his beautiful soft red fur, his big bushy red tail and his muzzle, which was as smooth and white as milk with a nose at the end as shiny and black as coal.

“Good morning Fox,” the animals would say as he walked past, “You do look magnificent today,” and he would smile and thank them for their kindness.

As the days went by Fox got so used to hearing their compliments that he began to forget to thank them for their kindness. In fact, after a while, he just expected everyone to tell him how beautiful he was.

He had changed.

Soon he would walk with his smooth muzzle and jet-black nose held high in the air just so he could look down on everyone else as they were not as magnificent as he.

He began to think that some of them were quite ugly, particularly the hedgehog with his ridiculous prickles all over him. Oh, and those stupid grey squirrels with tails longer than their bodies,’ he said to himself. ‘But worst of all was the deer with those two ugly short sticks growing out of his head.’

Now I don’t know if this was what caused the change but it was around this time that the weather in the wood began to get worse. The sun did not shine as much and a cold wind began to blow through the trees.

Many of the animals began to shelter from the cold wind but Fox would still go for a walk every day with his nose held high to show the other animals how beautiful he was.

The wind got stronger and stronger and colder and colder but Fox would still go on his walk but the animals no longer said how beautiful he looked. The wind was so fierce that it blew his soft red hair all over his body and his big bushy tail got tangled with leaves and twigs.

But worse still, the wind was so harsh that Fox’s nose began to stream with cold. His cold got so bad that he couldn’t stop sneezing. He really tried to stop because some of the animals were pointing and giggling at him.

He held his breath as hard as he could so he wouldn’t sneeze but a wind so cold and hard came through the woods and made him sneeze so loudly that, that, that ……… his beautiful black nose fell off.

‘Oh doh,” he shouted, ”My dose has fallen off!’

The animals came nearer to see and sure enough Fox’s nose lay frozen on the cold ground

‘My dose, my poor dose. How will I ever look beautiful again widout my lubbly black dose,’ said Fox and he let out a scream that sounded like a baby crying.

A young Deer walked forward. He knew what the Fox thought of him because he had seen it in his eyes but he cared little for what others thought and more about how one should behave.

He looked down at the little frozen black nose on the ground and then called up out the two Squirrels sitting in the tree above. ‘Can you come down and help,’ me he said, raising his voice above that of Fox who kept repeating, ‘My dose, my poor dose.’

The two Squirrels scampered down the tree chatting to each other as they leapt from branch to branch. When they came down to the ground the Deer asked them very politely if they might pick up Fox’s nose and wrap themselves around it.

The two Squirrels trusted the Deer and did as he said. The warmth of their bodies soon thawed the frozen nose until it lovely shine soon came back.

The Deer turned to the Hedgehog who standing nearby and asked him nicely if he might be able to spare some of his prickles. The Hedgehog trusted the Deer and did as he said. He shook his body so much that over twenty prickles fell from his coat.

‘My dose, my poor dose,’ said Fox as he watched the animals around him. The deer turned to the squirrels and said, ‘Now you two, take Fox’s nose and climb onto my head to the top of the two small twigs on my head. Hedgehog, if you could pick up the prickles you dropped and climb up and sit on the top of my head we can help Fox.’

So the animals did as Deer had asked and when they were in position he asked Fox to put his smooth muzzle between his antlers. As soon as his head was in position Deer asked the squirrels to hold his nose onto the tip of his muzzle.

Then he asked Hedgehog to use his prickles to pin the nose back on Fox. So Hedgehog pushed twenty prickles, ten each side through Fox’s muzzle and his shiny black nose was safely pinned back in place.

Fox looked at his nose, it was so strange to see it through the prickles and his muzzle was no longer smooth and white as milk as it was stained with mud and blood. He let his head droop to the ground, he could no longer look down on these other animals.

The deer thanked the Hedgehog and the two squirrels, who were so embarrassed to be thanked that they went from grey to red and stayed that colour. And the Deer found that his two short twigs grew into the most magnificent and beautiful antlers.

Fox had changed, he walked with his head hanging down and really only came out at night when the animals couldn’t stare at him and the whiskers on his face. Sometimes in the night, when he remembered how beautiful he had been, he would let out a scream that sounded like a baby crying.

And something had changed for Hedgehog too, but that’s another story.