Guillaume was a young woodsman who lived not far from Breeches Lake and helped some of the cottage owners with their maintenance needs, such as cutting dangerous trees, fixing broken water pumps, building wooden structures, repairing roofs and painting walls. During the winter months, Guillaume used to trap animals such as fox, mink, coyote and raccoon and occasionally he would do so on the grounds near Breeches Lake, with the permission of the administration.
Mila, a young girl living at Breeches Lake with her parents during the summer time and autumn weekends, liked Guillaume but she detested his habit of capturing animals with traps. She asked him one day in August: “Why do you trap the poor animals? They suffer a terrible agony until you come back, perhaps two days later, to slaughter them?”
“During the wintertime I do not earn as much as during the summer, so selling those pelts means additional income that I need to feed my family,” he answered.
“How much money do you get from the pelts?” asked Mila. “A fox pelt pays ten dollars, a raccoon pelt eight dollars and the best catch is a coyote’s which pays up to fifty dollars for one pelt,”, said Guillaume.
“But the trapped animal is in terrible pain, with probably one or two broken legs, waiting for hours or days until he is found and slaughtered,” Mila answered.
“I know how you feel but I have my trapper’s licence and I can make a good 1,000 dollars in a winter with trapping.”
Mila was outraged and decided to take action on this issue. She had the ability to talk with the natural world since she had met a fairy who gave her that power. Mila went to see Tina the Vixen who was living in a culvert under Breeches Lake Road with her family. Once near the den she said, “Naturageist, open your gates” and, upon reaching Tina’s den, she called: “Hello, Tina, may I talk to you?”. Tina, very surprised, answered: “Hello, Mila, I have not seen you in quite a while. What can I do for you?”
“Guillaume the trapper is preparing traps for the fall and probably he will place one near your den. I would like to teach him a lesson and perhaps you could help me,” said Mila.
Tina the Vixen responded, “It is very kind of you to warn me about the traps that will be placed near my den. I think that I can help you. I have in my den an old pelt from one of my ancestors. When I give birth to my kits, I place them there for warmth. If you want, once we find the trap, we could reset it and place the old pelt there instead. When the trapper tries to kick it with his boot, he will have a nasty surprise.”
Mila was a bit sad because she did not want to harm Guillaume, but, if she wanted the trapping at Breeches to stop, something effective had to be done. The plan was put in place. Tina the Vixen gave Mila the old pelt and they parted company. When the trapping season started at the end of October, Mila begged her father to take her to the lake on weekends, and on the very first weekend she found a fox trap four meters from Tina’s den. The latter had smelled the bait and carefully avoided it. She also informed other foxes about the danger, so that the trap was untouched when Mila arrived at Breeches Lake.
Mila carefully placed the old fox pelt on top of the trap and she added an anonymous note for Guillaume.
When Guillaume reached the trap on the following week, he saw the fox pelt and, confident that the fox had ben trapped, kicked the trap with his right boot. Instantly the trap jumped grabbing Guillaume’s boot. It was very hard to reopen the trap and the teeth had pierced the leather so that his foot suffered a painful wound. But with a lot of strength, Guillaume managed to free himself. He saw the paper and read what was written on it. “Don't do to others what you don't want them to do to you”. Then, limping, he went home and his wife, alarmed, asked him what had happened. He responded, “Wife, the fox has tricked me by placing a fox pelt on the trap, and my foot was caught in the same manner that I wanted to do with the fox. God has punished me for my cruelty. This fox is very clever. She gave me a paper with a verse from the Bible. Honestly, I do not think I will go back to trapping at Breeches Lake.”
In the meantime, Mila had not been idle. She had visited all the cottages at the lake collecting $20 bills to reward Guillaume for stopping the cruelty of trapping. With the money, she went two weeks later to see Guillaume and said.,” Guillaume, we cottage owners are very happy with your efforts and I understand that you are stopping the tradition of trapping. Instead, I have collected this $500 from everyone for you and I will give you another $500 in April when the trapping season is over. We shall do this every winter, so that you do not miss the income obtained from trapping.”
Guillaume was happy, Tina the Vixen was in heaven and the cottage owners were also very happy as they know how important it is to keep the balance of nature with foxes around Breeches Lake.
One evening in May, when Mila saw three little kits playing and jumping on top of each other near Breeches Road, she knew that something good had happened and she felt proud of what she had accomplished.
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