One of three

Our suburban garden nearly always has at least one fox visiting, and this summer has been no exception. We leave food out every evening - and it's always gone by morning. Initially we mostly saw one individual, but occasionally there was a second one with slightly different markings.

When I came down into the kitchen this morning I was delighted to see two foxes playing on the patio. But then ,to my surprise, a third appeared, and they all had a fine old time playing chase and hide-and-seek round the garden. 

I can't quite work out the relationship between them - two look very similar, with almost silver stippling on their flanks and well-developed white tips to their brushes, while the third is altogether greyer and has no white tail-tip. The one we thought was a female seems to be a male (as he was marking his territory this morning in true dog fashion), as is the greyer of the three. They could be a mother with two almost fully-grown cubs that haven't dispersed yet.

This evening the steady rain seemed to deter them for a while, but the boldest one eventually turned up. Pete was in the kitchen clearing away the pots and the fox is looking at him a bit warily. I love the little pink tongue sticking out!