Fox and Crow

Thank you, Jill and Sean.

Tammy and I were pleased to receive a gift from good friends that now hangs on our wall in the kitchen of our house.  The artist shows a rendering of a fox, with a tail that blends into the grasses and wildflowers, and a crow, who is standing/sitting in the wildflowers.  We happened to have this frame sitting around and it fit perfectly.  Onto the wall it went.

As we were looking at the picture, I asked Tammy if there wasn't, in fact, a popular story about the fox and crow.  The next day, she sent and email with one version of the story.  I think this version was on wikipedia, but it lines up somewhat with the version I recalled reading.

Aesop's The Fox and The Crow

A Fox once saw a Crow fly off with a piece of cheese in its beak and settle on a branch of a tree.

     "That's for me, as I am a Fox," said Master Reynard, and he walked up to the foot of the tree.

     "Good day, Mistress Crow," he cried. "How well you are looking today: how glossy your feathers; how bright your eye. I feel sure your voice must surpass that of other birds, just as your figure does; let me hear but one song from you that I may greet you as the Queen of Birds."

     The Crow lifted up her head and began to caw her best, but the moment she opened her mouth the piece of cheese fell to the ground, only to be snapped up by Master Fox.

     "That will do," said he. "That was all I wanted. In exchange for your cheese I will give you a piece of advice for the future: "Do not trust flatterers."

I seem to recall that the moral to the story is modified depending on the source or the audience somewhat, and some internet searching bears this out.  But, the moral, from my point of view is that one should not let complements blind you to what you are doing.  After all, there may be flatterers out there who are not genuinely interested in complimenting you.

Both Tammy and I have also done some reading about Native American history and stories.  The stories that feature animals are numerous and can differ depending on the nation/tribe/geographical region.  I do not recall a story that features both prominently, but there are a few things I do recall.

The crow is often portrayed as a trickster and almost always is part of a story where dramatic change occurs.  Sometimes, these two are combined.  The trickster causes others to veer from the originally chosen path, but that path is often for the betterment of those who are fooled.  The fox embodies the characteristics of observation and wisdom (and, of course, cunning).  The fox is typically portrayed as being mentally agile and able to adapt to a difficult situation quickly.

You're moving too slow, could you get to the point?  Photo by Ivan Kislov

Frankly, we can see the benefit of both characters on our farm.  The crow can keep us from being complacent and tell us uncomfortable truths to encourage us to become better than we are.  The fox can help us respond to the challenges put forth by the crow.

Kit at our farm, photo by Kip Ladage

A few years ago, we had fox kits on our farm.  Kip Ladage came out and took numerous photos of the kits before the family moved on.  If we could find a way to work out an agreement, we'd love to have a fox family on living on the same property as the Faux family.  But, we'd need an agreement about poultry and they'd need one with respect to privacy, I suspect.  We'd certainly appreciate the rodent control they could give to the farm.