Freaky Fox and Keystone Canines

Picture it:

The Young Negotiator (now 19) and I watching a mangy but well fed fox lope across our backyard.  This fox is weird and strange in that the yard is home to TWO dogs, is fully fenced and well,  the fox has no brush tail.  In fact the fox appears to have minimal fur cover without actually being bald.

Roger the Dodger (staffy) at my feet now sees the fox and begins barking before he takes off out of the lounge room, down the stairs and across the backyard in pursuit of said fox.

Layla (greyhound) does not see the fox but knows there is trouble afoot and also leaves the lounge room at top speed, entirely clearing the back steps in one leap, barking aggressively.  She in fact overtakes the staffy, as one would expect from a greyhound, and gets to the back fence to continue her barking into an empty paddock.

Roger meanwhile has reached the end of the pool fence around which the fox has disappeared and takes the corner well only to trip on.....nothing and do an almighty chin/chest plant into the very wet grass and slide out of view behind the pool, front legs facing backwards (imagine a suckling pig on a Slip-n-Slide minus the apple) .

Layla has finally realised the action is not in the back paddock and turns to continue the chase behind the pool also.  Whether she has actually scented the fox or was just trying a new direction is anybody's guess.

The Young Negotiator and I are laughing at these Keystone Canines and their antics wishing we had a video camera set up and running.

The fox meantime, who incidentally has had time for a cup of tea and scone by this stage, has long gone leaving the dogs excited but somehow not fulfilled in their quest.  We later found a chicken carcass in our yard beyond the pool where the fox had been heading.

Questions I have to ask myself:

1.  Why is the fox so short in the hair and lacking a brush tail?

2.  Why would this fox bring a chicken carcass into our dog-infested back yard and so obviously returning to consume it?  (It has been suggested that it had met our dogs in the past and was feeling entirely safe).

3.  What on earth did that staffy trip on?

Weird things a-happening here yesterday, but highly amusing just the same, except for the loss of one of our laying hens of course.