Here it is: proof positive that nature red in fur and paw really is all around us.

Press photographer Frank Dwyer snapped this young fox playing in the back garden of his Holgate home.

Frank and his wife Jamila were enjoying a coffee in the dining room on Saturday morning a week ago when he looked out of the French windows and saw the fox pushing warily out of some bushes.

The animal then lay down on the lawn and started stretching out. "He looked totally relaxed!" Frank says.

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RELAXED: The fox gets comfortable on Frank and Jamila’s lawn

Ever the photographer, Frank dashed upstairs to grab his camera and, after snapping a few shots through the French windows, went out of a side door to see if he could get closer.

"He must have heard the door," Frank says. "He saw me, looked at me for a while, then darted off. He's obviously still very wild."

There are more foxes than you might expect living an urban lifestyle. Jono Leadley, director of development at the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, says in the countryside, foxes are both omnivores - they eat everything from worms, beetles, voles, rabbits and the like to berries and fruit - and scavengers.

Given the amount of food we throw away, it's not surprising therefore that some are drawn into our cities to live cheek by jowl with people. "They are simply exploiting our wasteful and messy behaviour!" Jono says.

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DROPPING IN: At first rather timid, the fox eventually relaxed

What is unusual about Frank's fox is that it was out and about and enjoying the sun on a Saturday morning. You do sometimes see urban foxes during the daytime, Jono says. But more usually they tend to keep a low profile during the day to avoid contact with people. "Your best chance of seeing one is at night or at dawn."

They tend to seek out quiet, sheltered places with little human disturbance to live. "Bits of waste land with thick, tangled vegetation, abandoned buildings, those sorts of things are perfect," Jono says. "Having said that, they will sometimes find a place to build a den under an old shed, under decking, or in a rough, forgotten corner of a large garden. They are very adaptable, and this flexibility has enabled them to move in with us!"

They shouldn't be a threat to any pet cats or dogs you have. "Foxes are actually pretty small and most domestic cats are big enough and powerful enough to see off a fox," Jono says. "A fox would have to be pretty desperate to take on a cat or dog and risk severe, if not fatal injuries."

Nevertheless, he advises against feeding them.

They can lose their fear of people - and that can cause problems. These are, after all, wild animals.

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STILL WARY: the fox can perhaps sense that someone is coming...

"There are only a tiny number of people bitten by foxes each year – miniscule compared with the number of dog attacks on people – but on the rare occasion this happens, it is almost always traced to a fox that has been fed or reared by well-meaning people," Jono says.

Ted Hughes's fox

Former poet laureate Ted Hughes memorably wrote about a fox in his poem The Thought Fox. It isn't a real fox: the narrator is sitting awake in his room at night picturing a fox in his mind's eye.

But it beautifully captures the wary alertness of this secretive animal, just as Frank photographed it.

Here are a few lines: "Cold, delicately as the dark snow, A fox’s nose touches twig, leaf; Two eyes serve a movement, that now And again now, and now, and now Sets neat prints into the snow Between trees...

"Across clearings, an eye, A widening deepening greenness, Brilliantly, concentratedly, Coming about its own business Till, with a sudden sharp hot stink of fox It enters the dark hole of the head."

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A fox’s nose touches twig, leaf; Two eyes serve a movement...