For many Red Raider fans, the Jones feels like home, but for one furry family it actually is. The family of foxes made its presence known at Saturday’s Texas Tech football game, when one little guy ran ran the length of the field and through the end zone.
It eventually ended up in the women’s restroom near Gate 1, where student Alex Rangel snapped the now-viral photo of the creature.
“We see a fox come in from outside of the gate and run straight into the bathroom, so of course my first thought initially is to get a picture,” Rangel said. “It’s not the first time a fox has stormed the field.”
Animal Services said they believe a den of foxes is living within the Jones AT&T Stadium. After a fox made an appearance in 2013 in a game against TCU, Texas Tech asked Animal Services for assistance.
“We don’t know how long they have been there,” Assistant Director of Animal Services Kia Riemath said. “They just started being seen again. Then, when it ran out during that TCU game they decided, ‘This is getting out of control. If it is getting out when there are this many people here, we have got to get it contained.’”
So now Animal Services has a uniformed officer at every game on ‘fox’ duty.
“There used to be a lot more fields around Texas Tech, so we are thinking their area probably got encroached on, so they found somewhere they can hide,” Riemath said. “There is too much free food… I mean think of all those people dropping this and dropping that. They are going to munch on the nachos and hot dogs.”
The fox may or may not have brought the Red Raiders good luck, but Animal Services warned game attendees not to get too friendly with this furry fan.
“If you are at a game, or anywhere out, and you come upon a fox, leave it alone,” Riemath said. “It doesn’t want to be around you anymore than you want to be around it. I don’t care how cute they are.”
Animal Services said that uniformed officer will continue to be at every home football game, just in case another fox decides to imitate like our Red Raiders and run into the end zone.
Now you may be asking, ‘what did the fox say?’
“Our officer was able to catch it,” Riemath said. “Then we take it out to the wild and release it.”
So, the fox couldn’t be reached for comment.
