An animal lover has welcomed seven rescue foxes into her home – but although she calls herself a “fox mom” she accepts they might “do their business on the floor” and does not expect them to follow any of her house rules. Nicole Navarro, 41, was asked to take on her first two charges – Libby a vixen and Louie a tod – on the day she was laid off from her tourist guide job as Covid struck.
Since then, her “lockdown project” has expanded so she is now running a fox sanctuary in her back garden, getting up at dawn every day to look after the creatures she says have been rescued from the fur trade. Determined to allow her foxes to stay true to themselves, Nicole, who is single, has no children and lives in Key Largo in Florida, calls her unusual set up “the best kind of chaos”.
She said: “I love these animals, but they are wild animals. I would never call them pets. When they’re in my home, for example, I don’t scold them for natural wild animal behaviour. If they do their business on the floor or chew my shoes, well that’s on me.”
