This fox likes this new habitat..

Yeah, we moved 8 months ago, away from Riverside and ahead of the sprawl (although not by too much) to San Jacinto. Riverside had seriously lost its charm, not the town I grew up in, and with orange groves becoming a rarity in the birthplace of the navel orange and the city getting so crowded you could smell the people everywhere (and I swear, the collective body heat raised the temperature by several degrees), I wanted to escape. No fox should have to live in a place where the only scenery is housing developments.

I love it here. Sure, there's houseing developments going up (this is, after all, California, and those developers will be damned if they'll leave a grassy lot in the entire state), but they're smaller, and San Jac is smart enough that they require the developers to improve the streets -before- the houses go up, making sure there won't be traffic buildup. A lot safer place to be, too. Gunshots around here are more likely to come from the teens playing paintball or target shooting with airsofts. Crime is low enough that every cop car in town (we have 4) will show up for a traffic stop, just so they can get some action for the day. Not expecting to have any high speed chases wind up in my front yard here. Yes, that happened in Riverside. Obliterated my mailbox, thank God that was the only casualty, and the guy got tackled and cuffed on my porch. I can do without that kind of thrill, thank you very much.

Our neighbors are great, too. This is the kind of neighborhood (there's three through streets and three cul-de-sacs in the entire development) where everyone says hi, where people have chairs on their front porches and actually use them in the evenings, where parents hang out and chat in their driveways while keeping a mutual eye on the myriad of playing rugrats, where you can go for a stroll in the evening and have a reasonable expectation you'll get back home safely. Perfect for a fox who needs to breathe open air every once in a while. Our next door neighbors bring cupcakes and cookies. We both have beagles and have even talked about having a litter of puppies, and enjoy the occassional dog-sitting visit. Nothing like our last neighbors, who never came over except to complain and toss false accusations our way. Things like "I found a rat in my garage, it must have come from your house!" I eyed our large family of cats and then nodded to the crazy lady to get her to leave. Don't miss them at all, their snappy little mutt that would chase my girls on the sidewalk, their teenage boys who would toss their trash into our backyard, their general inconsiderate behavior, such as resurfacing their driveway without even letting us know so we could move or tarp our cars. Thank you so much for the beautiful cement mosaic on the right side of my '78 Firebird, you miserable.... Anyway, our new neighbors are the best!

Also, San Jac still holds onto that small town feel. We have a Super Walmart in Hemet, the conjoined sister city to San Jac, but San Jackers aren't so much into that sort of thing. It's too big, too noisy, too impersonal. We -do- like our local Target, because the staff is friendly and helpful, but small businesses flourish here, right alongside the chain stores. We -like- to shop where we get recognized, where we can chat with the owner, where it still feels like every customer matters.

All in all, the fox, she is happy in her new environment.