Juniper Fox

Juniper Fox It all started with Juniper, the happiest fox.

The Juniper Wildlife Refuge is a non-profit wildlife sanctuary dedicated to providing a lifelong home for animals who are no longer able to thrive in the wild.

Dove is now officially friends with Frank and Cheese! It has taken several months for their friendship to blossom, but i...
04/24/2026

Dove is now officially friends with Frank and Cheese!
It has taken several months for their friendship to blossom, but it has been delightful to watch unfold.

Raccoons are very sensitive animals and can be territorial. Introducing a new raccoon into an already established group can be difficult. So, in order to make the integration as easy as possible I had to first wait for Dove to be big enough and then slowly introduce her to one raccoon at a time.

Frank is the most easy-going and is always rather nonchalant, so I introduced her to him first. I spent serval weeks letting them spend a few hours at a time together which helped Dove gain some racooon social skills. Then I moved on to letting her and Cheese play alone together. Cheese was a bit difficult and didn’t take to her as quickly as I had imagined he would. Being that they are the closest in age I thought that he would he excited to have another young raccoon to play with, instead he felt the need to bully her for the first few encounters. This caused some setbacks because it killed her confidence for a while, but he eventually came around and decided he loves her. Now they constantly play together and he loves napping with her.

Newt is the most dominant in the group and was very tough on Cheese during their introduction to each other last year. So I’ve been very hesitant and cautious about his introduction to Dove. For now they greet each other through a fence, but he has seemed much more interested and docile with her than he did with either of the boys and I have a feeling he might have a little crush.

👉Check out our Patreon for an in depth look at their introductions and other behind the scenes footage of life at our sanctuary.

www.patreon.com/juniperfoxx

04/21/2026

In the spring red foxes drop their thick winter coats to make way for a shorter and less dense summer coat. All of the foxes at our sanctuary are ranched foxes or were bred on a “fur farm” which means they were bred to have unnaturally dense coats, far more dense than a wild fox. This was intentionally bred into their generics so that they would have an extremely plush pelt once they were eventually “harvested”. 💔

This dense coat is far harder to shed than the natural winter coat of a wild red fox. While some of our foxes can shed their entire coat on their own. There are a few that need some assistance. Juniper is one of those foxes. She is very particular in the way she likes to be groomed and usually won’t allow us to brush her. I’ve found the only way to reliably get some of these winter tufts off is to make it a game, which allows me to get a little off each time I touch her.

This process doesn’t hurt her at all and despite all of her fussing she does feel much better once I’m finished.

04/20/2026

You would have been 16 today.
I would have made you a cake and we would have gone for a long walk. I thought about going anyway,
but I don’t walk in the woods like I used to.

We used to spend hours there together. You, me, and Juniper.

She doesn’t like to leave the yard anymore, but she still watches the treeline for glimpses of you.

If heaven is different for everyone, I hope mine looks like a summer day. The three of us walking through the woods again as the sun starts to set. My favorite color of green is illuminating from the leaves and drops water are dripping from your fur. You smell like wet Earth laying next to me. Juniper’s tail is wagging as she looks up at you.
We’ll start to walk home soon.

04/12/2026

Blink is one of the few foxes I have that doesn’t like to be touched so I had never considered teaching him this trick before.
Yesterday, I was trying to coax him to let me pet him and he kept batting my hand away. This was the perfect behavior for me to try and teach him the trick “shake”. He caught on almost immediately.

He had the trick nailed down within less than 10 minutes!

Usually when I teach an animal to shake I repeatedly grab their paw until it clicks and they will start to reach for my hand on their own. This is the first time I’ve ever taught this trick to an animal I can’t touch, so I’m very excited and very proud of Blink.

I absolutely love trick training because it is enriching for them as it requires them to really take time to think about what I’m asking. In the wild they would be using their minds to find food, create shelter, raise young, and survive. They don’t have to think about any of that in captivity, so giving them complex tasks helps to keep them sharp and builds trust as we bond and communicate with each other.

04/06/2026

Newton, the 2026 reigning Egg Hunt champion!
We asked Elmwood for a few words after being defeated, but he declined to speak with us.

04/05/2026

Easter egg hunting with the foxes!

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04/04/2026

Home girl is obsessed with the smell of coffee so I wanted to make her something special.

Red foxes mark objects as a way to claim them and let other animals know “hey this is mine”. So, even though she didn’t seem to care about her gift, she still wanted to let everyone else in the house know it was HERS.

Home girl is obsessed with the smell of coffee so I wanted to make her something special.

Red foxes mark objects as a way to claim them and let other animals know “hey this is mine”. So, even though she didn’t seem to care about her gift, she still wanted to let everyone else in the house know it was HERS.

(I don’t let her drink coffee and I’m not going to let her eat the beans guys. Coffee is not good for animals. This is a toy for supervised sniffing only.)

It’s Juniper’s eleventyth birthday and what better way to celebrate than spending it in the shire
04/01/2026

It’s Juniper’s eleventyth birthday and what better way to celebrate than spending it in the shire

03/29/2026

It’s almost Juniper’s 11th birthday so here are a few favorite clips from the past 11 years of the happiest, loudest, most ridiculous fox

03/17/2026

I’ve been nervous to give an update on Ringo and Juniper because it’s not the warm and fuzzy content I know you all enjoy, but I think it’s important to share the realistic side of cohabitating with these animals. While it’s a magical experience it’s not always the dreamy fantasy that is so easy to portray and I think sharing the intricacies of their behavior not only helps to better understand them, but hopefully helps dissuade people from pursuing them as “pets”.

Juniper and Ringo have been getting along wonderfully for a few weeks now. I was, of course, elated to see her taking up to him because it reminded me of the way she loved Moose who passed a way nearly two years ago.
She was excited to be near him and would slowly approach him almost as if she didn’t want to startle him. She was quiet and gentle around him. It felt like everything had fallen perfectly into place, but there was a setback.

Early last week when I let Ringo outside I noticed Juniper stalking him through the fence. I’ve see her do this with other dogs, it’s a sign she’s unhappy with them in her space. I was hoping I was wrong, so I coaxed Ringo closer to the enclosure where she confirmed she was upset with him and began charging toward him. I was hoping it was just a fluke, but several days later she continues to glare and yell at him as he passes by.

I suspect that it’s her hormones. This time of the year brings about a drastic hormonal change for red foxes as baby season quickly approaches.

Typically, they become more loving and affectionate in the spring months. Juniper dotes on all of the other foxes during this time. She doesn’t want to be indoors if any of the other foxes are not inside with her, she would rather be with them. She brings them food, follows them around, and incessantly grooms them. She raised all of the foxes here and each spring she treats them all as if they are still babies. If I had to guess, this sudden aversion to Ringo isn’t personal. Her instincts are telling her to protect the others and that’s what she believes she’s doing and I’m sure in a few weeks she will be cuddling back up to Ringo apologizing for the mean things she had said to him.

03/11/2026

Elmwood is having yet another surgery tomorrow 💔
What I thought was a simple ear infection turned out to be a polyp inside his ear which will be removed tomorrow.

Elmwood just had surgery a few months ago to remove a sarcoma on his chest. Even though that surgery went smoothly and he was an angel during recovery, I hate that he has to endure another mass removal. Despite being upset about the circumstances, I’m so glad Dr. Todd caught the polyp before it had time to cause serious damage.

Rain came to us a few months ago with severe eye issues which we thought she would eventually need extensive surgery to correct, but she has made great progress with regular treatment. Her eyes remained normal throughout the winter with minimal drainage and inflammation and have only just started to become an issue for her again because of the high pollen count the past two weeks. Her eyes already look less irritated after receiving her steroid shot and I’m crossing my fingers this helps her eyes stay comfortable through spring and summer.

Both foxes did great during their visit, but I’m always impressed with Elmwood. He behaves better than most dogs at the vet and acts so casual in the room while the vet and her techs walk in and out. I can’t say I don’t feel a little smug when it’s time to go and all I have to do is say “are you ready?” and he walks into his crate, lays down, and waits for me to close the door behind him.

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Tallahassee, FL
32300–32399

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