On the bridges of the ravine in the forested area close to where we live the accumulated snowpack is beginning to show signs that spring is arriving. Not 'has arrived', but 'is arriving'. Typically, spring takes its own sweet time in this area because winter is never agreeable to moving over and making room for the next season.

Even though there are signs of melt, since the creek itself is running fairly wide and deep, the ice-snowpack on the bridges are at least a foot and a half in depth. Around the trees in the woods, though, the signs are there of spring's tardy arrival since the usual wells in the snow that appear at this time of year around the base of tree trunks are in evidence.

During yesterday's ramble in the woods the atmosphere was perfect. The temperature had risen to plus-five, the sun was out and the breeze was lovely. This morning's forecast dashed our hopes, however, that this benevolent weather is here to stay. We're forecasted by Environment Canada to receive five centimetres of snow in the afternoon and another five to ten in the evening, falling on into the nighttime hours.

We came across quite a few other woodland walkers yesterday with their dogs, so our two, Jackie and Jillie, had ample opportunity to socialize. At one juncture we came across the lovely woman with her year-old female husky that tends to wander into the woods where she cannot be seen, but that the woman controls with one of those electronic collars. Her husband takes the husky out on weekends, and she does during the week

Her husband dispenses with the collar, in fact he dispenses entirely walking with the dog. When her husband takes the dog out to the ravine they walk separate trajectories, occasionally meeting up from time to time. Given free rein, which the woman never does, it's anyone's guess what the dog gets up to. On Sunday we were informed that the dog had managed to catch a fox and was ravaging it when the woman who told us about the incident got involved, trying to make the husky drop the struggling fox.

It did, eventually, and in that brief instant the fox made directly for its den, the husky pursuing it and attempting to dig it out of the den, located in a bit of a bared-earth bluff close to one of the bridges. Amazing that the husky managed to snare the fox to begin with. Atrocious that she did. When the man finally caught up, having heard all the commotion, the woman gave him a piece of her mind and he literally shrugged.

The woman who walks the husky told us that she had noticed its muzzle was bloody when her husband returned with their dog. My husband wanted to know whether she was fully aware of what had occurred; it transpired that her husband had informed her. While it is unpleasant to confront or to criticize people, particularly people who are genial and likeable, there are times when your concerns should be conveyed, not aggressively or belligerently but meaningfully.

It's painful to think of the fox's trauma and condition. We can only hope it will survive its ordeal and nurse itself back to health. The woods are, after all, its natural element. The constant presence of dogs should logically have instilled an existential caution in all of the area wildlife, but there are times, obviously, when there is a violent collision.

We do have an obligation to other creatures whose rightful habitat it is, to keep those collisions to a minimum, however, and everyone should be mindful of that.