Desiring a realistic depiction of vulpine behavior and habits, Mannix spent more than a year studying the behaviors of a mated pair of foxes that he kept at his home [REF].
In 1967, E. P. Dutton selected Mannix's unpublished novel as the 1967 winner of its annual "Animal Book Award"-an international competition open to new authors in which an editorial panel evaluates submissions to find the "best book-length work of adult fiction or nonfiction on animals" [REF].