“The Dublin Fox”
book written and illustrated by Kelly Ulrich

Published: August 25, 2020
PawReview by TeddyBoy Sinclair

As the title says, this is a book about a fox.  Now, I have to say I like foxes, because they run like cats.  How cool is that?   But let’s get to this story.  A human rents a cottage in a place called, Dublin, Ireland.  One day as she’s shopping she nearly trips over a fox, and assumes the fox must be starving. (Huh, it’s been my experience that foxes rarely starve!)

That evening she sets out some food on her back porch before she falls asleep.  And in the morning, what does she see, but some foxy paw prints leading away from the empty bowl.  This human decides to go all detective and follows the prints, which lead towards the church, where she sees a priest give a chicken bone to the fox. But it doesn’t stop there.  The fox stops at the fish mongers, the post office, and the bakery and gets a meal at each place. Nope, I was right, this fox has a full belly. (Heck, he even stopped at a neighbor’s house for some spaghetti!).  But what was the story behind all these humans helping feed a fox?

Well, it seems that hundreds of years ago, the town of Dublin was over run by rats, and the cats couldn’t keep up with catching all of them.  (Frankly, I really find that hard to believe, because cats are awesome hunters, but then again maybe we do need a little help now and then..)  A  gameskeeper found an orphaned fox, who turned out to be so good at helping cats catch mice, that he was made the  official mascot of Dublin. And those Dublin humans decided to always honor foxes for their mouse catching abilities by leaving them food.  (I wonder if “those” Dublin humans leave tidbits for cats too?)

I know it seems like this PawReview is more about cats than the foxy hero of  The Dublin Fox, but hey, I’m a cat.  In any case, I really like the pretty pictures in this book and couldn’t stop staring at them and touching them with my paws.  In fact, this book is catastic!

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