Patsy and the vixen at home in Columbcille
When animal lover Patsy Gibbons was given a three-week-old fox cub to nurse back to health, it was the start of an uplifting adventure for both. Sean Keane went down to Thomastown to meet man and animal at Columbcille - a sanctuary of life and spirit.
A FOX cub that almost died from malnutrition was nursed back to health by Thomastown's answer to Dr Doolittle. Now Grainne, the vixen, enjoys an idyllic existence with Patsy Gibbons who runs a kind of refuge for birds and animals at his country cottage at Columbcille, outside Thomastown in the shadow of one of the country's last remaining country estates, Summerhill.
Only that I saw and heard it myself, I would have said it was fiction, but it did happen. Patsy took out his harmonica and started to play a traditional tune and Grainne rolled around the floor, completely at ease as Patsy belts out the tune while keeping a eye on his four- legged audience.
He laughs at the good of it.
Patsy is an example to us all, at a time when human greed and corporate immorality has brought the country to its knees financially. He knows what's important in life - looking after all God's creatures and his neighbours. There is a serenity about his life and ways that is a joy to behold.
A man of simple pleasures who grows his own vegetables and lives in harmony with his surroundings.
The pair
Patsy and Grainne are a familiar site in Thomastown, with the vixen perch-ed around the shoulders of her master as he walks the streets. If he goes into a shop, he leaves her outside.
They are constantly being stopped for photographs and having visited many of the local schools, they have become celebrities in the local community.
It could all have been so different if it had not been for Patsy's brother Eugene and his co-worker Tom Ryan. They were clearing away boxes at St Columba's Hospital in the town when they stumbled across an amazing discovery.
A little underfed, three-week-old cub had managed to get into a cardboard box but was unable to get out of it. It was obvious to the two men that she was undernourished and close to death.
Eugene didn't have to think twice, he knew exactly where to bring her - to Gibbons's Shangri-La where Patsy welcomed the new arrival with open arms. "I had always wanted a fox and was delighted when Eugene brought her," he said.
It wasn't all plain sailing for the duo, and on his first attempt at feeding her, she bit him - not a bad one, no blood but a warning. It did not deter Patsy, who soon had the animal eating out of his hand. He had gained her trust with his pure nature and gentility.
"She weighed one pound when I got her and it took a while to bring her around because she must have been in the box for a while," he said. It seems there are a few fox families living on the periphery of the town and they have been foraging around for ages, and Grainne obviously got separated from her mother who could not help her.
That was in May 2007 and now she is 31lbs weight and in the very best of health thanks to Patsy.
She likes meat and he cooks it for her because if foxes eat raw meat, they begin to smell, really smell. She has a sweet tooth and loves biscuits, any kind, especially dig biscuits but is also well disposed to fruit cakes, especially those with cherries or raisins. She also eats veg - carrots, parsnips and the like.
In the wild, foxes eat a variety of small mammals including rats and they also feed on worms and grubs as well as fruit in the summer and autumn. In urban areas they go through domestic rubbish.
Grainne is a big hit with the other inhabitants of Chez Patsy including Blackie and Easa two dogs. Grainne has taken to laying her head on Blackie's back in the evening time.
The name Grainne seems like a natural name for the fox and it was Patsy's sister-in-law Helen who came up with it. "When she said it, we knew it fitted her," he said.
Patsy, Grainne and the two dogs walk everywhere together and when a car drives down the road, Grainne simply sit downs and waits for it to pass.
"She misses nothing and going along if something is different or new she will stop and examine the scene," Patsy said.
He also takes her hunting for rabbits. "She is lightening fast and has the rabbit caught in quick time," he says proudly. "She is more like a cat than a dog," he explained adding that she would knock great fun playing with a ball of wool in the kitchen, demonstrating her feline tendencies.
Grainne has her own little Den next to the house, but she stays in the cottage with Patsy at night, watching television or listening to Patsy playing his harmonica.
Grainne is not the only unusual resident of the Cottage at Columbcille. There are numerous breeds of duck and chicken and a donkey.
Curiously, the duck eggs hatched while being warmed by a chicken and it's curious to see a chicken looking after a raft of ducklings while the real mother watches on. "Chickens have more of the motherly instinct than the ducks," Patsy explains.
As I leave the house, he insists I take a half dozen duck eggs with me and I have to admit they were the tastiest I ever ate.
And as I left, I thought how much better off we are for having the like of Patsy and his wonderful pets in our lives.
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Weather for Kilkenny
Thursday 17 May 2012
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