A musician in Colorado has captured the sweet moment he serenaded a wild fox in his back garden.
Andy Thorn has been playing his banjo in the backyard of his home in Boulder Heights, Colorado, ever since the pandemic struck.
Pre-covid, the musician was set to play a year-long tour of gigs with his band, Leftover Salmon.
But little did Andy know that he'd find an entirely new audience when he started strumming away on his banjo at home.
While it was common for wild foxes to wander through his garden, in the winter of 2020 Andy started to notice that the same fox would stop and listen as he played.
The 39-year-old musician told Local 12 how he realized that the fox was his new biggest fan.
"We weren't on the level where we were seeing him every day and sort of hanging out with him a bit. And then during the pandemic, we realized that he really walks through our yard almost every day," Andy said.
"Then one day I happened to be playing banjo on the deck, and he took a liking to it, for sure. And slowly we realized, Oh, I think he's kind of into this music or at least curious about it," he added.
Take a listen as Andy serenades a wild fox:Naturally, Andy and his wife were eager to get a snap of the curious little fox listening along. Eventually, they were able to capture one of their regular encounters with the wild animal.
In the video, the fox can be seen watching Andy curiously as he plays. Then when he stops, the fox trots back over and looks at Andy expectantly until the music resumes.
When they put the video online the response was overwhelming. But for Andy and his wife, the fox had become part of the furniture.
"We captured, we got a video of me playing to it, my wife got it on a phone and people were kind of like, 'Wow, this is amazing.' And we're, you know, to us, it had been something we've just been living for a few months," Andy explained.
He went on to say that while he's by no means a wildlife expert, he reckons that his foxy fan is male because of the way he behaves.
Meanwhile, as for their growing social media popularity, Andy said he is just happy to brighten people's day. The video of him serenading the fox has racked up over 3.3 million views on YouTube and thousands of comments.
"This is actually one of the coolest videos I've seen in a while," wrote one user.
"You just delivered 99 seconds of happiness, not just to the fox, but to all of us who were lucky enough to witness a beautiful moment," added another.
"I think when your musical audience is a wild fox you must be living right," agreed a third.
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