Staff from the Nof Hagalil Municipality office found the report they just received via their hotline hard to believe: "a fox is stuck on the second floor windowsill of the national insurance office," according to a man who identified himself as a government employee.
"This is real," the government worker who recognized the fox insisted. The municipality rushed to call veterinarian Dr. Issam Barik to the scene.
"One wrong move and he [the fox] could fall to his death," Barik explained, adding that "the building has three stories, and it's unclear how the fox arrived to the second floor."
He estimated that the fox was already inside the building and "wanted to leave, but didn't understand that the window was on the second floor." He added that the fox probably became alarmed upon noticing the height, and stayed in place.
At this point, Nof Hagalil Mayor Ronen Plot entered the picture after receiving a special request to use the electricity department's bucket truck – a truck with a crane lift – for use in the fox extraction.
Plot gave his permission, and requested that everything possible be done to extract the fox healthy and intact. Within a few minutes, the head of the city's electricity department, Uri Twitto, arrived with the bucket truck and began the fox-saving operation.
Fortunately, the fox was cooperative, and readily jumped inside the net attached to the buck on the crane for him to jump into. However, he was impatient during the bucket's decline, jumping out of the net and fleeing the scene.
The fox rescue-operation has become the hottest story of the city, and of the national insurance offices in particular. The national insurance institution and its hotline is busy handling an influx of inquiries after the coronavirus, as business owners and city residents are left in need of special assistance during the virus crisis.
The fox lightened spirits with its moment in the spotlight."He looked so sweet, he probably came to fill out unemployment forms and didn't want to stand in line," said one of the national insurance workers with a smile.
Branch manager Monam Zeidan added that, "Although the fox visit was strange, it brought a smile during these not so simple days."