Observations by dmagdalina

I was biking north on North Sherman Ave at 1:55 p.m. when an animal darted across N. Sherman Ave., coming from the east side of the street and darting at a NW angle across to the west side of the street. It crossed only 1.5-2 yards behind my bike, but due to crossing at an angle, it was to the left of me by the time it reached the southward bound lane (There is also a middle turn lane in this street). I stopped my bike to watch it because this was not a dog or any domesticated animal and I was trying to identify what it was. It ran differently than a dog, perhaps swifter and lighter in its gait. It loped all the way up to the northeast corner of the house at 406 N. Sherman and stopped about 1 foot in front of the house, facing north but looking at me and/or the bus that had just passed me (also heading north), so that I was viewing the entire right side of the animal. It stayed there, watching me, a full 20 seconds before going around the corner of the house and loping down the driveway. I had passed the bus when it was previously stopped, picking up a passenger a half block behind me. The bus passed me while I was stopped, watching the animal. Perhaps, the loud sound of the bus starting up after its stop is what frightened and caused the animal to cross the street. The tail of the animal was very mangy looking -- scruffy and shabby. The hairs were longish at the end for the last 6" like a fox's but the rest of the tail looked like most of its hair was short or maybe missing, or at least severely flattened, providing the mangy and shabby appearance. The color of the animal was grayish -- various hairs of gray, off-white and dark, kind of black almost. The animal was skinny and scrawny with rather tall legs and really tall rear hips for a dog of this proportion and large, wide ears that were also out of proportion for any dog of this size. It had big, watchful, wide-alert eyes. I thought if this was a dog, it had been abused and beaten and had maybe just escaped its imprisionment. I saw it go halfway down the driveway of that house at 406 N. Sherman and then I lost sight of it. Perhaps that was when the bus and/or other traffic passed me and blocked my view. The animal was gone when I could next see the driveway. There was a garage at the end of that driveway. To the right of that garage was what looked like what might have once been a dog pen but was now old, broken, dilapidated and fallen apart -- a mess and pile of stuff. It looked like a great place for this wild animal to hide and live and I wondered if it lived there. It seemed to be connected to this house in some way, or perhaps comforted by being close to it, but that analysis maybe only works if this was indeed a dog, which I do not think it was. Looking at photos of coyotes and fox leads me to think this was a fox (especially those ears!), but definitely not one with a beautiful coat of hair like I have seen on other fox. My heart felt sad looking at this animal. It did not look like it was having a comfortable life.