Residing at the top of the tallest building in London is a luxury outside the means of many, but not, it seems, for a six month old red fox, who revelled in his city fantasy for an entire fortnight before being evicted.
Dubbed ‘Romeo’ by his rescuers, this enterprising young fox coasted through the front doors of The Shard, soon to be the tallest building in Europe, before clambering up the central stairwell to the top.
For two weeks, Romeo lounged almost 300 metres above the city, soaking up arguably the best city views in Europe, while living off the scraps of builder’s lunches. Surely none other than a fox could pull off such a brazen and stylish endeavour.
However, after a fortnight of basking on the pinnacle of capitalism, Romeo’s grand city vacation came to an abrupt halt when pest experts managed to corner the furry vacationer.
Local pest controller, Les Leonard, who was involved in the naming and nabbing of Romeo the luxuriate, says he was scared out of his wits ascending the last 34 floors of the building, which hadn’t yet been fitted with glass.
After successfully dealing with what he labelled “not your typical call out”, Leonard passed Romeo off to Ted Burden, founder of Riverside Animal Centre, who determined the fox was in good health despite falling a little short on worker scraps.
Burden then gave Romeo a pep talk before releasing him, saying “if foxes were meant to be 72 stories off the ground, they would have evolved wings”. Romeo appeared to listen, as he took one last glance at The Shard before vanishing into the cityscape, as foxes often do.
Romeo, like many urban foxes, will continue in his daily struggle, avoiding the callous hunters of the English countryside by dwelling in the urban shadows. But unlike others, he has a rather soaring tale to tell. Two weeks at the top of the world.
The reporters at The Fox Gazette wish him all the best.
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