She entered this forest if sounds, sights, and smells with all the gusto one would expect from a seasoned traveler. And Kimi approached each if these new ''first's" with all the bravery of a new-land explorer.

As any camper knows, the first thing you do when camping is to set up camp. Our camp, being set deep in the Wisconsin woods right beside a set of rapids on the Tomahawk River, is at the mercy of Mother Nature. The first thing we always have to do is to clean it up from last winter's storms.

As daddy cleared the bigger trees, cutting them into our evenings firewood, Kimi and I began clearing the brush and limbs that had fallen. As I took a hold of the bigger, heavier end, Kimi would grab the leafy ends and help me move it. Our little pint-sized red fox proved she is no delicate butterfly when it comes to working, as she tugged and heaved, and dragged her end of the limbs to the pile we would use as kindling. The biggest chore was in getting her to let it go when we reached that spot! I think she wanted to drag it all the way home to play with later on.

Kimi would grab a leafy twig and pull backwards as hard as she could until her tiny little bottom was almost dragging the ground. With each jerking pull, Kimi would make a grunting growling noise, sounding like a motor reving up. "Rrrr", "Rrrr", "Rrrr", she'd say. Once she tugged so hard the dead leaves crumbled in her mouth and her teeth scraped them loose from their branches. In the middle of one mighty tug, Kimi summersaulted backwards through the sand, landing with a grunt, when the leaves came loose. Undaunted, she leapt to her feet, grabbed another mouth full and kept pulling and jerking until her branch was right where she wanted it. What was work to me became another wonderful game to Kimi. And you know what? I bet she had more fun playing than I did working!

There is an area of our camp site that is all sand, and through that sand pit crawls a horde of black ants. Kimi spotted this potential playground as soon as we had camp set up and off she went to explore it's possibilities.

As soon as she spotted an ant scrurrying through the sand, Kimi pounced it, landing with one front foot on each side of the ant. Then with her nose she would "punch" this ant down into the fine grains of sand, as deep as she could. Then she would lift her head, and with her nostrils packed full of sand, she would watch it try to climb back out of the pit she had created with her long almost pointy nose. Ears perked almost straight, her ever present grin in place, she would stand there and wait for it to crawl to the top. Poised and ready, as soon as it tried to makes good it's escape, Kimi would 'strike' again and 'punch' it right back into another nose-pit. After sending this poor ant deep into despair a time or two, Kimi would leap high into the air and "YIP!" sharply, then pounce it again.

Once when she lifted her head with her nostrils clogged again the fine grains of sand must have tickled her nose, because she suddenly sneezed. "Pffftt"! "Pfffttt"! She sneezed twice. Right on top of the ant! A look of shock and laughter came over her face when she did this and blew the ant right out of the hole!! Kimi tossed her head up to look at me, grinning widely her dark almond eyes glittering with joy. Then just as quickly she "pounced" the poor insect again.

As you all know ants are tiny bugs and even as tiny as Kimi is, she still towers like a giant over them. Being so much bigger than her new found toys, eventually her play would become to much for these creatures. So just what does one do with a dead ant? According to Kimi that's simple. You just eat it! MMMMMM....crunchy, yet flavorful.. A slight hint of protein. They would be better dipped in choclate though. Oh well, there are more ants to be pounced, and after crunching her 'snack', Kimi happily bounced off after the next one.

After eating several of these crunchy, lifeless tid-bits, imagine Kimi's surprise when suddenly one that had been playing possum came to life on her tongue! Feeling those tiny feet scampering across her tongue, Kimi's eyes popped open, her mouth fell wide, and she curled her tongue WAAYY back ino her mouth, and a look of horror and revulsion crossed her face as hough she thought, "Ugh! It's alive YUCK!" , as she quickly spit it out. Geez Kimi, nice manners for a little lady, spitting out your food! Not to be worried though. Kimi merely pounced it once more then again for good measure. Checking this time to be sure it would crawl no more, she merrily crunched it down too.

I had to laugh at her though when she spotted a type of "grand daddy long- leg". Seeing surprise and joy brighten her adorable young face, Kimi quickly picked up on this newest critter. Bouncing over to land in front of it, Kimi placed her nose on the sand right in front of the spider, as she had with the ants to 'line up her aim'. Only this time something went wrong with her plan. Instead of stopping as the ants had done, the spider kept going.....and going....and going. Right up her nose, between her now crossed eyes, to her forehead! Kimi's head shot up in surprise as she tried her best to see where this thing had gone. By now it was resting between her ears and even though Kimi had her chin lifted to the sky trying to see behind herself, she couldn't find it. She evidently couldn't feel it either and figured it had gotten away so she began looking for it.

With her nose to the ground in true tracking fashion, Kimi began in small circles, sniffing the ground for her foe. Gradually widening the circles, her sniffing continued. With this 'pest'; still on her head, Kimi might be able to smell it, but she would never find it! Not one to cry over spilled milk or lost spiders, Kimi's attention was soon distracted by a large jumping grasshopper. Soon her and her new found friend were busy playing a game crossed between leap-frog and follow-the-leader where Kimi would jump and land right behind the grasshopper each time it tried to jump away from her. They continued this game across the camp and somewhere along the way, the spider was bounced to freedom.

There are two lessons to be learned here. One from Kimi and one from the spider who eluded her snacking habits.

*From the spider it is this: If you want to stay ahead of the game, you have to get on the ball (or in this case the head).

*From Kimi we learn again: one should never spend to much time or effort looking for fun, for if you open your eyes and your hearts, you will see there is much fun to be had all around you.

walk in beauty
Kristi & Kimi