Driving slowly along Soda Lake Road in the Carrizo Plain National Monument, I noticed a flash of a fury, four-legged critter 50 yards to the west. An endangered San Joaquin kit fox had just vanished into its grassland den.
However, its mate froze, choosing to lay flat, even its ears flattened out Yoda-like. I stopped my truck, grabbed a camera, and proceeded to belly-crawl 40 yards toward the motionless kit fox.
It never wavered, and as I approached, it almost appeared to be napping on the wide-open Carrizo Plain, one of the last bastions for this high desert canid.