Beloved SLO County fox is getting a bronze statue — nearly a decade after its death
Nearly a decade after a playful gray fox captured local hearts, the beloved animal is finally set to be immortalized in the Village of Arroyo Grande.
On Tuesday night, the Arroyo Grande City Council approved plans for a public art installation in Centennial Park to honor the memory of “Foxy,” a gray fox whose playful antics caught the attention of locals in late 2017 as it roamed the Village.
The friendly animal was known to stop on people’s porches, play with local animals and even roam across the grassy areas with the town’s famed chickens and roosters.
But Foxy’s time with Arroyo Grande did not last long.
After a complaint that it had killed a resident’s chickens, the fox was trapped and euthanized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services in November 2017.
Outrage quickly spread throughout the area following the announcement of Foxy’s death, with numerous people questioning why the animal was not relocated.
Throughout the years, however, the spirit of Foxy has prevailed in a small group of dedicated residents, committed to keeping the fox’s memory alive.
From ribbons and hand-painted rocks to a candlelight vigil and ongoing fundraising, numerous residents and local groups like Arroyo Grande in Bloom and Arroyo Grande Public Art have worked to remind the community of Foxy’s impact upon them all.
Now thanks to their fundraising efforts, a more permanent memorial is finally on its way.
During its meeting Tuesday night, the City Council approved the installation of a “lifesize” bronze statue by wildlife artist Michael Tatom.
The bronze sculpture will depict a small fox, measuring approximately 13 by 9 by 12 inches, and be placed in a tree planter in Centennial Park.
“The Foxy bronze would be to remember Foxy as a symbol of our community spirit, our pride, the love of our city, of the wildlife all around us,” volunteer Vivian Krug Cotton told The Tribune ahead of the meeting. “A reminder that our citizens can work together to educate each other, our children, everyone, on the importance of our wildlife, our ecosystem and how we can live with our wildlife in harmony.”
Krug Cotton said the statue is expected to cost roughly $6,500, with any remaining money from the $9,000 fundraised going to ”another project we hope to bring forward in the future of educational signs along the creek in Centennial Park.”
Details for that project have not yet been fully ironed out.
City Council debates location, theft worries
Though the City Council in general supported the Foxy memorial, several members did express concerns about the details of the plan, especially its location and size and whether it would be easy for someone to steal.
“It feels very vulnerable to me in that spot,” Councilmember Kate Secrest said during discussion. “And I hate saying this in a public meeting, because I feel like it’s like giving people all these things, but I know that we for quite a while had problems with vandalism right at those bathrooms. And I, you know, I do think most people are good and have good intentions, but I do feel like it would be really vulnerable right there.”
Mayor Caren Ray-Russom expressed similar concerns, saying she felt the location hadn’t “been well-vetted.”
“My concern is an overall concern that it’s very small in an area that’s large, and so I just feel like it’s going to get orphaned where it is,” she said.
Instead, Ray-Russom proposed placing the statue on the other side of the creek, alongside the city’s historic millstone.
“There’s already a sculpture there,” she said during discussion. “So it seems to me like that would be a more appropriate for the scale that it is over on that side, so I can support it there.”
In response to the theft concerns, city staff did note that the statue would be locked in place with a roughly 3-foot-by-2-foot slab of concrete underground to prevent someone from being able to pick up the piece and walk away with it.
To that, Ray-Russom and Secrest both expressed concerns about potential damage the concrete would have on the existing tree in the planter where the statue was expected to go.
“I shall, for just posterity, reiterate my extreme concern for that tree,” Ray-Russom said. “That is a big footing in a small area.”
Secrest also noted San Luis Obispo’s recent tree “tragedy of errors” at the under-construction SLO Rep theater site.
“We have another city in this county that just went through a bit — I’m going to call it a bit of a fiasco — with a huge tree they had to have taken out because it wasn’t considered when they started to build the big, huge parking garage,” Secrest said. “So that sounds like that could be a problem.”
Ultimately, however, the council voted 4-1 with Ray-Russom as the sole “no” vote to approve the statue for its proposed location in Centennial Park.
“I think it’s a good spot that it will get a lot of notice,” Councilmember Jamie Maraviglia said during discussion. “And especially with kids that are walking through the Village, I think they’re really going to love it.”
A timeline for when the statue would be ready to be installed was not discussed Tuesday night.
This story was originally published February 12, 2026 at 11:21 AM.
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