The Hunter, the Fox, and the Model Airplane Enthusiasts

Dear Readers

A model airfield located along a dirt road—the path leads straight to the nearby forest—was bustling with activity, especially on those beautiful summer evenings. To be more precise, several motorized model planes were whirring through the balmy air. The pilots were trying their hand at aerobatics—or perhaps it was just stunts; for while aerobatic pilots practice the art of flying figures, stunt pilots are happy just to manage to land their model at all... It wasn’t uncommon on such evenings for a dark green, heavy SUV to drive by. Sometimes it went by quite fast, and the driver seemed “stressed” (a word no one knew back then, even though people worked hard even in those days). It seemed to the model pilots that the man didn’t particularly enjoy their wonderful hobby. They thought they could tell that from his expression.

When the SUV drove by again one evening, a passerby remarked that the driver was the manager of a posh hotel in town. He reportedly held a hunting lease for the nearby forest. From then on, the model airplane enthusiasts thought they understood why the man looked so serious—just think of the huge responsibility! But lo and behold, one evening the car suddenly stopped—right in the middle of the runway approach—the serious-looking man got out, walked over to the group of model airplane enthusiasts, and asked, unexpectedly friendly, if they’d seen a fox back there at the edge of the woods. “Saw a fox?” the modelers asked honestly. “No, we didn’t.” How could they have? Modelers usually look up at the sky and rarely into fox dens. The hunter thanked them and got back into his car. Well,

the hunter’s question didn’t go completely unnoticed by the hobbyists. Every now and then they’d glance toward the edge of the forest and—it’s hard to believe what you can see if you just take your eyes off the sky for a moment—they spotted the fox. It didn’t seem to have any fear of the whirring and whizzing flying objects. It trotted around quite leisurely, searching for mice and occasionally watching the modelers’ activities. The model airplane enthusiasts, too, grew accustomed to the fox and, as twilight began to fall, often let their gaze wander toward the edge of the forest. Thus, a small, friendly alliance developed between the fox and the model airplane enthusiasts. Sometimes, however, Master Reinecke was nowhere to be seen, and the pessimists among the model airplane enthusiasts would claim each time that something had

something had happened to the animal. Until one day they noticed that the fox never showed up whenever the dark green vehicle was parked on the dirt road! And so everyone drew their own moral from the story: The hunter believed that the fox wasn’t showing himself because of the model airplanes—hence the serious expression; the model airplane enthusiasts were certain that the fox knew “his” hunter very well; and the cunning fox—well, what did he think?

With animal-loving pilot greetings
, Emil Ch. Giezendanner

Addendum: This proves that foxes have nothing against us model airplane enthusiasts. And where there are foxes, there are also birds—at least the famous goose.