Woman who welcomed eight foxes into her home now uses them as therapy animals to help domestic abuse survivors

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A girl who rescued eight foxes from fur farms that now sleep in a twin-size mattress in her home now uses them as therapy foxes in ladies’s shelters and youth rehabilitation programmes and claims many “resonate” with the foxes’ “story of survival”.

Nicole Navarro, 43, who works part-time on a vacationer boat and lives in Key Largo, Florida, with her eight foxes, Libby, Louie, Reef, Kai, Coral, Jasper, Ridley and Penny, started rescuing the animals in 2020 after she acquired laid off within the pandemic.

Nicole says all of her foxes have been “deemed undesirable” by fur farmers, as that they had “some sort of physical defect”, such as lacking tails or toes, however claims that is what “ended up saving their lives”.

Nicole’s foxes have 24/7 entry to a room in her home, with luxuries such as air con and a mattress, as effectively as an enormous enclosure outdoors with “enrichment activities”, and Nicole spends most of her days off enjoying with them, and feeding them their weight-reduction plan of hen, duck, rabbit and turkey, which prices 800 {dollars} (£625) a month.

At the tip of 2022, Nicole started utilizing them as therapy foxes, the place she places them in a harness, permits folks to stroke them and tells the foxes’ tales of going from being bred to kill to residing a cheerful life, which she finds “extremely rewarding” as she has “experienced intense trauma” in her previous.

Nicole stated: “When I take the foxes to the sessions, I find that the people really resonate with the foxes’ story of survival.

“Often these people are victims of domestic abuse and in a way, have been in a similar position.”

Nicole first fell in love with foxes in 2018 when she was volunteering on the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office in Key West, Florida, which had an animal farm.

She defined: “In 2018, two foxes were surrendered and even though I had a lot of experience with different species of animals throughout my life, I grew up on a very large horse farm in western Pennsylvania, I had never had up close personal experience with foxes.

“And I just sort of became completely infatuated with the species and then started learning more about their backgrounds – most foxes here in the United States can be traced back to fur farming and it’s illegal to capture, obviously, wild animals out of the wild and turn them into pets.”

From then on, Nicole began contacting fox rescue centres all through America about probably rescuing them sooner or later, and in March 2020, certainly one of her contacts requested her if she was prepared to take some foxes that have been being surrendered from a fur farm.

She stated: “I quickly scrambled to raise money because at that time, the Florida Keys completely shut down since we’re tourism based so I got laid off, and it became a bit of a lockdown project.”

Two months later, she welcomed Louie and Libby, foxes from a fur farm, into her home and since then, she has adopted one other six foxes.

She stated: “All of the foxes were deemed undesirable meaning the fur farmer would not have been able to kill them and sell them because they had some sort of physical defect.

“So some of the foxes I have don’t have tails, some of them are harmed by their mother at a very young age so they’re missing parts of their tail and Reef is even missing some toes.

“So all the foxes I have here have some sort of thing that was deemed imperfect by the farmer, but it’s actually what ended up saving their lives.”

Nicole retains them all in two massive enclosures outdoors they usually even have 24/7 entry to a room in her home.

She stated: “They have a twin-size bed that they sleep on and there’s no electrical wires or anything they can chew on or harm themselves with.

“It gets pretty warm here so the room is air conditioned… and they all have outdoor enclosures with ramps and platforms and enrichment activities, toys and tunnels.

“So they are really given everything they need to use the natural instincts they have – they’re not domestic in any way, shape or form.”

Nicole defined her daily-routine to take care of her furry pals, saying: “I get up fairly early and I do a spot clean of the enclosures.

“I feed them a little breakfast – they eat rabbit, duck, chicken, turkey, I do offer them fruits and vegetables, but they rarely go for it.

“I sit back there with them, I interact with them, I play with them.”

At the tip of 2022, Nicole started utilizing her foxes as therapy foxes.

She stated: “I reached out to a women’s holistic trauma recovery programme and just sort of proposed the idea of bringing a fox to meet the women and sharing the foxes’ stories of survival – going from certain deaths to living on an island in Florida.

“When I take one of my foxes into the sessions, I put him in a harness and a little leash, but I don’t train him on a leash.

“I tell his story and then welcome people to pet him or play with him, but it’s amazing, as soon as I put the harness on him his personality changes – he’s so calm and relaxed and we’ve never had any issues with him.”

From there, Nicole has expanded her periods.

She stated: “The Florida Keys Children’s Shelter saw what we were doing with the women and asked if they could start bringing children here to meet the foxes and hear their stories and so that started officially last year.

“Since then, we’ve expanded all the way down to Key West with another programme called Project Lighthouse, and it’s basically a drop in centre for youth runaways… anyone that wants to come in and meet a fox and hear his story and hear a little bit about my story are more than welcome to.

“We also go to a live-in temporary shelter for women, and when I tell the fox’s story, people are usually really moved.”

On the way it feels to help others in her neighborhood, Nicole stated: “It’s extremely rewarding for me and that is because in my own personal life’s journey, I have experienced intense trauma.

“So, me being able to work through that in the past, and now be able to give back to people that are struggling with some of the very same things, is extremely rewarding.

“I don’t ask for a fee from any of these facilities, it’s really my way of giving back and especially in this community that’s been so extremely supportive of me and the foxes since day one.”

Looking again on her experiences, Nicole thinks the foxes have additionally helped enhance her psychological well being.

She stated: “For me to be able to provide the environment that I can for them, it helps my mental health.

“Even sitting out there watching them, playing with them or even watching them sleep is just very rewarding knowing that I’m able to provide this for them.”