Festive foxy fun with John Lewis

Walking my dog home from work last night, he suddenly lunged forward in pursuit of something. He is not a small dog and usually walks brilliantly on the lead, but when he gets onto a scent there is no stopping him.

The object of his obsession was of course a fox, the bane of his life. They turn up in the middle of the night, having scaled at least four high walls, to pull apart the bins, recycling bags and anything else that happens to be in the garden. The dog freaks out, barks (which he never does) and usually marks his territory on the living room floor – meaning we wake up to a doggie pile and rubbish all over the garden. This happens on a regular basis and short of relocating the boxing day hunt from my brothers Yorkshire market town (don’t get me started) there is nothing we can do.

Foxes are everywhere in London and in particular our part of London, so much so that ten years ago a C4 documentary Meet The Foxes, investigated the ‘problem’. Hackney council eventually threatened to cull them, causing a huge divide between those who loved and those who hated the foxes. The animal rights people won and the foxes continue to rule the streets, boldly roaming around in broad day light, screaming insanely at night and driving our dogs mad!

When I posted about the new John Lewis advert on on Twitter yesterday, I was bombarded by local friends questioning the relevance of the cute bouncy foxes.

‘hello have you met foxes #foxshite.’

‘John Lewis should release a director’s cut where kid wakes to find fox shit, hedgehog carcasses & squirrel entrails all over the trampoline.’

‘This John Lewis advert is so unrealistic.If the decking in our garden is anything to go by, if foxes had really been on the trampoline, it would be covered in turds by the morning.’

So what was intended to be a heartwarming story of animal friendship didn’t seem to ring with Londoners, but that’s probably not the point and maybe the day after the US election wasn’t the right time to release the advert. The Guardian certainly didn’t think so – but they could be overthinking it!

Personally I’m loving the videos of real life dogs on trampolines and the fake advert created by an A level student (below), just as much as the actual JL ad!!