Upping the cute factor

Fox cub and dog become best of friends

An abandoned fox cub rescued from certain death after he fell into a quarry is being nursed back to health thanks to an unlikely friendship – with a dog. The male cub tumbled to the bottom of the disused pit where he was stranded and later found cold and severely malnourished.

He was discovered by a family three weeks ago who took him to wildlife expert Gary Zammit at a fox rescue centre. Gary began helping the fox recover but was stunned when the cute cub found a playmate in his his one-year-old lurcher Jack.

Jack and the cub developed a “strong friendship” and regularly play fight on Gary’s sofa and chase each other round his garden and fields. The cub has now been called Copper after a character from the Disney film The Fox and the Hound – where an abandoned fox and puppy also become friends.

Gary, of the Feadon Farm Wildlife Centre in Portreath, Cornwall, said Jack has started to “take over” nursing duties. “They truly seem to have developed a strong friendship and have become inseparable.”

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