1 month later, Whitehorse mystery puppy is definitely a fox

The mystery of a baby animal a Whitehorse family thought was an abandoned puppyhas been solved once and for all: officials at the Yukon Wildlife Preserve say it's most definitely a fox.

Wildlife officials said it would take time to identify the animaland now they know for sure.

"Once his ears stood up and his face changed and the smell became really obvious," said MariaHallock, the wildlife curator at the Yukon Wildlife Preserve.

"We change his blanket every three hours but still it's getting pretty smelly here."

Staff try not to spend too much time with him so as not to get him too used to humans.

He's not the only young animal at the preserve. Staff are also caring for a two week oldsquirrel in rehabilitation. As well, five muskoxen were born at the preserve this spring in addition to new lambs and bison.

Hallock says in a couple of weeks the young fox will get his first vaccines and then he'll be able to go outside. She says one concern is he might be lonely. The wildlife preserve has put a call out to other accredited zoos to see if he might join another fox somewhere in Canada.If not, staff here hope to build afacility for him and find another fox.

"It's sort of a difficult thing to do because it wasn't expected and we don't really have a lot of funding, in fact we don't have funding because we are non-profit and we are just always looking for anybody who would like to help us."

But officials with the Yukon Wildlife Preserve say they'll find a way to ensure the little fox is well cared for.