Stranded Gray Fox gets a Big Lift

Stranded gray fox gets a big lift
Rescuers, with the help of a tugboat, save the animal from treacherous Hudson River ice
By JORDAN CARLEo-evangelist Staff Writer
Updated:09:29 p.m., Thursday, December 23, 2010 ALBANY -- Fantastic? This fox? Not so much.

The tale of its reprieve from an icy grave? Now that's a story.

With out a minute to spare Thursday, authorities from two counties plucked a half-frozen-but-still-wily gray fox from its shrinking refuge of Hudson River ice -- capping a four-and-a-half-hour rescue that ranged from the ingenious to the absurd.

The cagey canid was first spotted shivering beneath the Dunn Memorial Bridge around noon by a passerby, who flagged down a fire truck returning from training at the Port of Albany to Arbor Hill.

There, huddled against the wind in a gray ball at least 15 feet below the road, sat the fox -- squinting against the blowing snow and occasionally peering around well out of reach of Animal Control Officer Karen Miller's pole-mounted snare.

At that point, anyway, the critter would have made an easy target: Its tail was frozen securely to its icy perch.

Bits of chicken hurled onto the ice didn't merit so much as a sniff.

Unlike the exploits of the adventuring bandits often featured in fables, the outlook for this fox looked grim.

Hesitant to risk a rescuer tumbling into the frigid water -- which was hovering just a tick above freezing -- city fire officials nixed approaching the fox in a small boat and instead opted to wait for reinforcements from a tug boat at the nearby port.

The vessel, however, was busy wrangling with a recently arrived barge, and as the Hudson's tides reversed direction upstream, they met a stiff downstream breeze that started submerging the fox's delicate refuge, causing large sections to drift away. Firefighters gazed anxiously down-river toward the port as the water crept to the fox's hindquarters.

Minutes later, though, the tug Kathleen Turecamo was free and chugging toward the scene just north of the U.S.S. Slater's summer mooring, with Officer Miller and her snare on board.

Capt. Bill Powers bellied his boat as close as he could to the bridge's pylons, in water as shallow as two feet, while Miller and the boat's engineer, Mike Gallow, jury-rigged a lengthy pole to Miller's snare with clamps and duct tape.

But the boat rocked the ice so badly that it began to fracture and spooked the critter -- its tail now freed by the encroaching water -- into a death-defying dash from ice floe to ice floe. Twice the fox fell into the river before scrambling to safety on another chunk of ice.

Powers then descended from the wheelhouse and began smashing the ice near the boat with a pole while Gallow slung a hook and rope, trying unsuccessfully to pull the ice to the boat if the fox wouldn't come willingly.

That gave way to a new plan: To carefully lower a trap baited with dog food and canned tuna.

But it would prove unnecessary. Instead, Averill Park firefighters were headed to the scene in an air boat capable of passing easily between the pylons and shoreline and, if needed, gliding over the ice.

The Rensselaer County rescuers cruised onto the scene as the day's last light faded, cornering the fox on what little remained of the initial patch and scooping him to safety -- sparking a round of cheers from their colleagues on shore and Albany Fire Chief Robert Forezzi to reflect on the first fox rescue of his 37-year career.

"If we didn't go the extra yard, I think we'd be criticized," he said. "Today, I think we outfoxed the fox."

Later in the day, the fox was reported to be doing well at the Whispering Willows Wild Care rehab site in Charlton, under the care of Maria Dorr-Dorynek.

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