The Daily Tot 6/2/2022

The Glory of The Hunt ________________________________

The arctic fox was really hungry. Like SUPER hungry. He was ready to eat a lovely full dinner of his favorite food. Lemmings. The little black and gold rodents were really delicious. Also there was nothing else available to eat except the lemmings he was tracking. It was the middle of winter and some stupid red foxes were eating ALL the available food. They had finally left a little while ago, shivering, cause they didn't have thick enough fur to survive winter. Did anyone give them the "YOU DONT LIVE HERE, JUST LEAVE!" memo? No. They would come back in summer and stuff absolutely everything in their big mouths. So now he had to go around and find some food to eat before he starved. Fun, right?

The lemming was really scared. Like SUPER scared. The ground was frozen, so he couldn't tunnel into it. Where's global warming when you need it? True, he shouldn't have wandered into an area where there was permafrost, but a lemming has to eat, and he was scouting the area for his colony. Considering his luck, of course he'd bump into an arctic fox. What happened to being critically endangered, huh? Nowadays it was more likely to bump into a snowy owl or a wolverine. The sad thing was that he had just found a frozen green shoot, and was about to have a wonderful meal when the fox appeared and he had to move on. Now the lemming also smelled weasel. WAS EVERYBODY OUT TO EAT HIM? How was he going to survive this encounter! UGH.

The arctic fox also smelled the weasel. A weasel could be either competition or food. In this case considering the size of the weasel, the arctic fox voted food. While it didn't taste nearly as good as a lemming the weasel was definetely bigger, and probably more filling... *sigh* He gave up on the lemming. Temporarily at least. He began to stalk towards the weasel. His dinner-to-be was so focused on his own meal (haha, no way was he going to get it now) that he didn't see the fox padding through the snow towards him. Then he pounced and there was fighting and blood and claws-- it was pretty gory. There was a lot of bloody snow, which must have looked all pink. Like pink snow! Come on, wouldn't we all love to see pink snow? I mean we could go to alpine Sierra Nevada to see watermelon snow, but bloody snow is better. Anyway, the fox was pretty happy after he finished up the job, and began working on eating the weasel before someone found him and decided to help him eat it. Weasel wasn't as good as lemming, but it was still food. And it was moderately delicious...

The lemming had run away a long time ago. While he'd love to watch the weasel be eaten (IN YOUR FACE WEASEL), the arctic fox would probably go after him if he stayed around. The area had looked pretty bad besides having an arctic fox den in the proximity, so it would probably be a terrible place to settle. There were lots of other things that could eat them where they currently resided too, so it didn't matter about that. But permafrosted soil? COME ON!! How were they supposed to dig tunnels! However he'd found some non-frozen ground a little further, with a few rocks for protection. Best of all, he found some more food to eat. YUM!!! Frozen plants!

So sometimes there are moderately happy endings. Except for the weasel. I mean there is climate change and everyone is being driven out of the tundra by a certain rather annoying species (Hint: Look in a mirror) and people love wearing Arctic Fox fur coats, so that must be fun for our protagonist. There's those red foxes again who can't mind their own business and stay in their own territory (reminds me of humans...). There's everything else that eats lemmings... Well nobody really cares about the lemmings. They're weird little furry things that more important animals like to eat. If it weren't for the fact that this story was written to demonstrate dual perspectives, the lemming wouldn't even get a say in this. Anyway, they all lived moderately happily ever after until the fox got hungry again, and the lemming was in danger again. :D