The Ballad of Cocky the Fox so far: Cocky the fox, a handsome specimen of Vulpes vulpes living on the edge of an English town, is in trouble. His mentor Holiday Bob, top fox in the Borough, is dead. His family life has collapsed, and he’s moved in with his friend Champion, a distressed albino rabbit. His enemies are everywhere. And he’s been drinking a lot of aftershave.
Fit the Sixth saw Cocky and Champion on the move. Driven from Champion’s hutch by rats, ravens, general hostility, the dynamic fox-and-rabbit duo took off at low speed down the towpath of the old canal. Across the water lay the ungoverned zone, the gangster’s paradise, of the Northside — its proximity causing Cocky to reminisce about the time Holiday Bob brought a Northside boss low with a single, carefully deployed haiku. But even as he regaled us with the old tales, Cocky was losing his bearings in the moment. Arriving at Safeway Wood, trash-strewn demesne of Cocky’s pugnacious Aunt Patsy, our two friends seemed temporarily confounded. And Patsy was no help at all.
The Sniffer Issue No. Six accompanies Fit the Sixth of The Ballad of Cocky the Fox. It features an interview with Parker about his boozing habits and a poem about Cocky’s hemorrhoids. It can be downloaded from here.