When I stopped my jeep to take a picture, a fox ran over and bit a tire. The staggering animal then wandered a few steps away. I followed with the jeep, stopped, and the fox bit the tire again. Finally, the poor creature moseyed over to the side of the road, fell over, and got back up. Needless to say, I stayed in the jeep! When the foxes had rabies, their heads were swollen. Their eyes and snouts were puffy, not slender like they normally appeared.

During my stay at Cold Bay, the fox population was decimated by an outbreak of rabies. For whatever reason, the foxes that had contracted the disease lost their fear of humans and other animals. They began showing up on the grounds of the radar site, posing a threat to us all. One of my friends, upon getting out of a jeep in our parking lot, was brushed up against by a fox acting in a cat-like manner. I witnessed that happening and was surprised that my friend had not been bitten! On another occasion, our dogs got into a fight with a rabid fox outside of our main building. During the rabies outbreak among the foxes, we had to be as wary of them as we were of the bears during their non-hibernation season.