Bohemia Village Voice  Bohemia Village Voice

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Mystery of baby moles found in Bohemia Road

Marchien Kuiper

Marchien Kuiper

Old Town resident Marchien Kuiper (pictured, right) is a regular early-morning swimmer at Summerfields Leisure Centre on Bohemia Road. It was on her way up from the town centre towards the end of March that she noticed something unusual lying on the pavement in front of her. It was about 5.45 am, and just getting light. ‘I saw what I thought was a dead mole on the pavement. Then, as I walked up to it, three steps further along I saw another grey-black mole-like creature. Two of them together seemed like too much of a coincidence, so I walked back and saw that the first one was still breathing, but very slowly. The second one, I discovered, was also breathing. They were tiny creatures, like large mice, and they had their eyes closed.
‘I hesitated, worried that I might be attacked by the mother. But then I picked one of them up and saw that it had its eyes closed and had no paws, and this grey-black fur. I held one in the palm of each hand, trying to keep them warm against my chest. I was wearing gloves, so they were quite happy.’
Still unsure of what they were, Marchien took the animals up to Summerfields, but found it had not yet opened. ‘I approached a couple who were waiting in a car, and they guessed that what I was holding was a pair of fox cubs. They advised me to  leave them. But I knew if I did that they would die, so I put them down by a bush in the car park and went to get help from Summerfields, which had opened by then. I spoke to Amanda, who was on the desk. She immediately said I should bring them inside.’ Amanda Paine, duty manager at Summerfields: ‘I felt so guilty that I couldn’t leave them. So I put them in a cardboard box, made a few holes in the box and covered them with a blanket. We put the box on a desk in the office and fed them milk through a hollowed-out biro”. They soon got the taste for it and, by the time Marchien had finished her swim, they had started crawling around.
‘We called one of the street wardens to come and have a look at them, and she took them to a vet, who confirmed that they were indeed fox cubs. From there she took them up to the RSPCA centre at Mallydams Wood. They said they would care for them and, when they were well enough, they’d be sent to a fox centre in the north of England.’
The RSPCA at Mallydams Wood, were unable to give us further details of the story without ‘proper clearance’ from a higher level of authority. Clearly, these were not just any old fox cubs!

Baby Moles?

Baby Moles?


Amanda Paine

Amanda Paine

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