Roeselien Raimond is a talented Dutch photographer who has stunned us already with her extraordinary pictures of beautiful wild foxes. She’s now back with an exclusive Christmas fairytale that she wants to share with Bored Panda readers, to make your holiday even more magical.

Raimond before told us that foxes, along with cats, are her favorite animals. “Their depth and uniqueness appeals to me: Every fox is an individual character. With a fox you never know what they are up to. Will they be hunting, sleeping, swimming… Will they even be there at all?”

If you want to add a little touch of red into your white winter palette, scroll down to read Raimond’s Christmas fairytale that she sent to us with the warmest holiday greetings!

More info: roeselienraimond.com | Facebook | 500px.com

Once upon a time… There was this particularly vicious animal, with a profoundly bad character. A natural born killer and thief, that took pleasure in robbing poor farmers. Not only did she steal one chicken, for personal use. No, she gladly killed every single one of them and left the farmer behind with only a sad memory in the shape of feathers and viscera. Obviously murderous and bloodthirsty creature, called fox, was hated and hunted upon. Quite logical, isn’t it?

One day… The fox just sat. Her belly was full and apparently the hunters had a day off, so she finally had some spare time to think over her sins.

Yes, she ate meat.
Why?..
Because that was in her nature!
And yes, admittedly, she often took more than strictly needed.
No idea why, that same nature just made her do so.
And yes, she sometimes stole an egg or two.
Or robbed a mama rabbit of her babies.
Not so very nice, no.
But did she have a choice then, like people have?
Should she quit eating meat?
Improve her life?
Become a Good Fox?..

And while the fox, so totally unfoxy, pondered over her sins, white fluff fluttered down out of nowhere. And yet another and another and suddenly there were thousands of fluffs falling from the sky, as if someone emptied a huge pillow over her head. The fox looked up surprised. “Was this a sign from above? In the shape of chicken feathers?! That must have been quite some chickens then, sure more than she would ever tackle!”

The countless feathers fluttered down and the fox saw the world disappear slowly. The sharp spines of the buckthorn became round and white, even the rough rocks were covered with a soft white blanket. And, still amazed by this unknown phenomenon, the fox felt one of the white tufts landing on her nose. It did not feel like a feather though. It felt… cold. And it tickled! The fox shivered: “Was she disappearing? Was this the punishment for her sins, for all those killed chickens, rabbits and birds?.. Was this… the end?..”

More and more of the cold prickly stuff covered her fur, but it actually didn’t feel that bad. Fear gave way to amazement and curiosity and the fox noticed how her bright red coat was slowly becoming invisible… But she was not disappearing. She could still clearly feel her tail. Her nose could still smell, her ears still hear and her eyes still see. She just was white as snow now… That was it! Pristine white, innocent and pure. The snow washed away all of her sins and she would finally be a Good Fox!

The fox could not believe her luck and let the snow come over her, totally prepared for the Great Cleansing Ritual. After today, she’d finally gotten rid of her bad image. And to her beautiful laundered coat, everyone could see that she was no longer Sly & Evil, but now Honest & Sincere. Maybe even… holy. The children’s books should be rewritten and hunting foxes would be banned immediately!

With these hopeful thoughts in mind, the fox warmed her heart and defied the long cold winter night. When, after many hours of snowing, the sun finally rose, there was no sign of a red fox left. Only a fox-shaped snowman in a completely white landscape gave away that there had once been a fox.

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However, it is quite something, such laundering ritual! Small icicles hung on her whiskers and the tip of her tail had become insensitive. She hadn’t received any sign that she was ‘ready’ though, so she bravely waited for the Great Whitening to complete. She ignored her stiff muscles and repressed the impulse to itch her tail. Until a flake suddenly tickled her nose. She couldn’t help herself and… sneezed! The white package bursted and snow powder dusted through the air. The fox surprisedly blinked her eyes…

No New & Improved Fox was born…
She was still red
Just as she was before the Great Snowing!
The color of her fur was so familiar
It was the color she had as a cub, inherited from her parents and ancestors.
And to her own surprise, she was not disappointed at all, but secretly a little relieved.
That red looked so beautiful!
After all, it was HER red!

The blizzard had failed to wash away her sins. But the snow gave her something instead; The realization that she’s good the way she is, with her red hair and chicken-devouring character. So the fox stopped meditating, as pondering simply was not her nature. She spontaneously did something more ‘foxy’; She took a big pounce into the snow, gasping for flakes as if they were chicken feathers and bounced overjoyed by the white landscape.

Would this have been a movie instead of a fairy tale, you would have seen a happily jumping red dot getting smaller and smaller, accompanied by the first notes of “You can not always get what you want, but sometimes you might just get what you need”.

And the fox lived happily ever after…

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