I have been having to trap for feral dogs recently and two out of the last three nights something had gotten into the trap and taken the bait food without setting off the trap . I had, had a similar two expierences last spring so I had a hunch that I was dealing with another (or the same one ) kit fox . It had gotten into the trap and gotten away with the bait food as I said so I knew that the animal had to be very light to not spring the trigger . So I adjusted the trigger to a lighter touch and put the bait into a container where it could be both seen and smelled and wired that to the trip plate so whatever was getting the bait would have to work for it rather than just snatching it . As I suspected , a kit fox .
He was not very happy about being out foxed .
Desert kit fox (Vulpes macrotis)
A very pretty animal , a little about them here ;
http://www.desertmuseum.org/books/nhsd_coyote_new.php
http://www.canids.org/species/Vulpes_macrotis.htm
Some better pics of desert kit foxes not in a cage ;
http://www.google.com/images?q=Vulpes+macrotis&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&oe=UTF-8&rlz=1I7GPEA_en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=erX0TPOUHoiWsgPgn5WwCw&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CCQQsAQwAA
It was a pretty good sport and allowed me to take its picture .
That is a very pretty animal, lonediver. Glad you got to see it up close and was able to share it with us.
We have the Red fox here. I've seen them in the wild quite a few time, but like you, they are hard to get a picture of. One day i came upon a family of 4 kits and a Mother. I put the pictures on this thread. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1010317/