48 pieces · AnimalsPhoto by Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. A red fox (Vulpes vulpes) in full winter coat, sitting in dry grass and fallen leaves.
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A Red Fox, Healthy Again
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A Red Fox, Healthy Again
In mid-September 2026 a quietly cheering story came out of Tennessee. Middle Tennessee has been dealing with a bad run of sarcoptic mange in its red fox population, and around Nashville a retired songwriter has spent years as the person neighbours call when they spot a sick fox. He sets traps on trail-camera tips, gets up at whatever hour the trap trips, and drives the animal to a local wildlife rehabilitation centre. His own summary of the job, given to the Tennessean, was the best line in the piece: "I'm not the hero, I'm just the ambulance driver."
What makes it a good-news story rather than a sad one is that mange is fixable. It is caused by burrowing mites, not by anything as hopeless as rabies, and it shows up as relentless itching, hair loss and scabbing. Left alone it often kills — through secondary infection and through the exposure that follows losing a coat — and it spreads readily between animals in contact. Caught in time, though, treatment is straightforward and the fox goes back to the woods with its fur growing in. The rehabilitation centre involved reported taking in 44 red foxes across all of 2025 and passing 60 by September of 2026, a rise the nonprofit links partly to shrinking habitat pushing family groups into closer contact. A fox family, incidentally, has one of the better collective nouns in English: a leash.
The fox in this free Animals jigsaw is what the work is aiming at — a wild red fox sitting upright in dry grass with a thick, healthy coat, the rust of the shoulders running into silvered guard hairs and a white-tipped brush of a tail. It is a satisfying solve because the animal is sharply defined while the ground around it is a wash of grass and fallen leaves in almost the same palette. Choose your piece count and play instantly in your browser, with no download or account required.
How to play
- Tap Play A Red Fox, Healthy Again puzzle to open the puzzle board, then choose your piece count and difficulty.
- Drag pieces from the tray onto the board and snap them into place until the full image is complete. Works with mouse on desktop and touch on mobile.
- Use the Preview button on the play screen to peek at the full reference image whenever you need a hint.
- When you finish, check your solve time on the completion screen and share it with friends to see who can beat your record.
Frequently asked questions
- What is mange in foxes, and is it treatable?
- Sarcoptic mange is a skin disease caused by mites that burrow into the skin, producing intense irritation, hair loss and crusting sores. It is highly contagious through direct contact, and it can be fatal — usually through secondary infection or exposure after the animal loses its coat rather than from the mites themselves. It is, however, treatable, which is why rescue and rehabilitation efforts can return affected foxes to the wild.
- What was the September 2026 Tennessee fox story about?
- It profiled a Nashville-area volunteer — a longtime songwriter in his late seventies — who traps mange-stricken red foxes on tips from residents and drives them to a wildlife rehabilitation centre for treatment. He has logged thousands of volunteer hours over roughly seven years, and posts before-and-after footage of recovered foxes that has found a wide audience.
- How can people actually help foxes in their neighbourhood?
- The rehabilitation centre's advice in the coverage was specific: do not put food out, avoid rodent poisons, and keep rubbish bins tightly closed. Feeding draws multiple foxes to the same spot and speeds mange transmission between them, and poisons can weaken the immune systems that would otherwise help an animal fight the mites off.
- What should I look at first in this puzzle?
- The fox. Its face, ears and the dark legs give you the strongest contrast in the frame, and the rust-to-cream gradient down its chest is easy to sequence. The surrounding grass and leaf litter is the slow part — it is all one warm straw colour, so use the direction the grass lies and the patches of shadow rather than hunting for colour differences.