# The fox that ate the scraps > **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou. > > Cite as: "The fox that ate the scraps," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-fox-that-ate-the-scraps/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *The small grey desert fox that lived on the grounds of the Baja resort, which the cook told John Kiriakou would finish anything left on the plate — and which, every single night, defecated on exactly the spot he crossed to reach his outdoor mini fridge.* - **Where:** The grounds of the Baja California resort - **What the cook said:** Don't worry about unfinished dinners — the fox eats the scraps - **Where it left its droppings:** Exactly where Kiriakou walked to his mini fridge, every night - **Description:** Very small, grey, nocturnal - **Comparison he draws:** The desert foxes of Sinai and Afghanistan - **Distinguishing feature:** Huge ears, which he had never seen before **The fox that ate the scraps** is a resident of [the Baja California resort](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-resort-with-no-air-conditioning) where [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) filmed in October 2025, and the subject of a viewer question he had promised to return to and then forgotten. ## The cook's arrangement The animal had an established role in the kitchen's waste management. *"The cook at the resort told us not to worry about not finishing dinner, because there was a fox that lived on the grounds, and the fox would just eat our scraps."*[1] ## The complication The arrangement had a downside, and it was located precisely where he could least afford one. *"The fox would always poop right where I come out to go to my mini fridge every freaking night. And so these poor ladies had to clean up the poop."*[1] The detail lands only if the [mini fridge](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-tarantula-on-the-mini-fridge) is understood: it stood outdoors, and reaching it at three in the morning already required shaking scorpions out of his shoes and carrying a flashlight to check the top of the appliance for tarantulas. ## Identifying it Asked by a viewer what species he had seen, Kiriakou described behaviour before appearance. *"They run right in front of your car as they're trying to cross this dirt track. They had huge ears, which I had never seen before."* Alongside them he saw *"rabbits with these gigantic ears that are standing right up — they're like desert rabbits, or the desert hare or whatever"*, and accepted the host's correction that these were hares.[1][2] The foxes he placed by comparison with the two deserts he knows professionally. *"It was a desert fox like you see in Sinai, or in Afghanistan. They're very small. They're grey, and they only come out at night."*[2] When a viewer suggested a fennec, and an image was produced on screen, Kiriakou declined to claim expertise and then accepted the identification: *"I'm not a fox connoisseur"* — followed by *"yeah, that's it. That's it."*[2] ## The Afghan comparison The reference point is a memory from deployment. Asked earlier in the same programme whether Afghanistan had been more comfortable than Baja, Kiriakou said he had seen a snake there but *"hundreds of foxes"*: *"desert foxes. They come out of their dens when the sun goes down. You can see their eyes shining off in the distance."* He added that they are not dangerous, and that there were marmots in both places — *"they had marmots down there in Baja as well. Saw dozens of them."*[3][4] ## See also - [The resort with no air conditioning](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-resort-with-no-air-conditioning) - [The tarantula on the mini fridge](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-tarantula-on-the-mini-fridge) - [Where He Slept In Afghanistan](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/where-he-slept-in-afghanistan) ## Sources 1. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-10-22), at 56:41. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNhvUJehZGo&t=3401s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-22-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 2. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-10-22), at 57:13. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNhvUJehZGo&t=3433s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-22-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 3. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-10-22), at 09:25. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNhvUJehZGo&t=565s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-22-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 4. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-10-22), at 09:55. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNhvUJehZGo&t=595s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-22-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-fox-that-ate-the-scraps/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt