Having a soft spot for foxes, I loved this description of a hair-raising drive careering through the mountain roads of Ithaca in the 1950s, with a fox appearing on the road and showing no concern or fear even with a car-load of men shouting at him.  You can imagine him thinking, ‘Unimpressed, chaps, unimpressed’.  

I also like topaz-coloured eyes. 

The electric moment was when the red fox jumped down out of the scrub on to the road, and stood staring coldly at our headlights for a moment or two.  “Ai, ai ai!” cried the driver, and the policeman, and all the young men.  The red fox turned quickly and ran.  He did not jump into the scrub above or below the road.  He ran along the road, very quickly and easily, and the car followed him, left, right, left, on the road that twisted beside the steep precipices.  “Ai, ai ai!” roared the young men.  For one moment the fox turned and stared at us, his eyes like shining topazes.  Then he vaulted into the thick myrtle, below and out of sight. 

Source: Louis Golding, Good-bye to Ithaca (London: Hutchinson, 1955), p. 220

Photo credit: rottonara and 452345 at pixabay