ou never know when an animal will come into your life and change everything. One animal rescuer discovered a tiny creature in a garbage bin, it led to a years-long friendship.

Marianne Wik has been rescuing animals in the Spanish mountains of the Sierra Nevada for the past 10 years.

“Me and some friends said that, ‘yes, it doesn’t hurt to take a car and just drive around and look,’” Marianne told us (translated from Swedish.)

Marianne and her friends would often check garbage bins, to get them to safety and preventing them from accidentally getting picked up by a garbage truck.

“It’s not just dogs, but also cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, birds. We hardly ever come back empty-handed,” she explained.

But it was in her own garbage bin where Marianne made her most memorable rescue. “I was going to throw away the rubbish myself and then I heard something in there,” Marianne said. “So I jumped into the bin and started rooting.”

Inside the bin, she found two small baby creatures, no more than three days old. While they looked like puppies, she later discovered that they were actually a species of forest fox.

She took the animals to the vet for care, and then decided to adopt one of the foxes. Her friend took in the other. The foxes, alone and separated from their mother, would not be able to survive on their own. “He became tame very quickly,” Marianne said. “That’s the only thing he knows, really. He would not have survived in the wild today”

Marianne named her fox “Lucky,” because it was lucky that she happened to check the garbage bin before it was too late.
She’s had Lucky for three years now, and he’s grown up into a beautiful animal. While he exhibits some fox behaviors, like hiding when he goes to sleep and only eating alone, he’s a loyal and faithful housepet.

“He is very playful and curious. He wants full control of everything I do. But if I have to go away and can’t be home, he just goes to bed and sleeps. He does nothing. When he was so little, I started buying him toys – and he hasn’t broken anything in the house.”“He is a very loving and social individual.”

Meanwhile, Marianne continues her dedicated work rescuing local animals. While it can be emotional work, it’s worth it to save lives.