Richard Curle's Night Visitor

In a 1937 book, Scottish author Richard Curle [1883-1968] explained how one night when he was just a boy in Scotland, he found himself wide awake late at night. As he looked at the snow outside and watched tree branches move in the wind, he became aware of the light, steady sound of footprints approaching the back of his home. This sound filled him with dread, though he could never say why.

As he listened, the steps entered the back garden, despite a locked gate that should have slowed their progress. They approached the back door of the house and, a moment later, he heard the steps in the hall below, then on the stairs, then in the hall outside... they stopped at the door to his room. Then the door opened.

The visitor stood on it's back legs, and appeared to be dressed; it most definitely wore a top hat. But it's size, figure, and face were unmistakably that of a fox... and a bushy tail hanging behind the strange being confirmed this odd identification. The fox stared straight into Curle's young face; and, after a moment's hesitation, Curle shouted "Go Away!" The fox obliged; it turned and walked back the way it came at the same steady, unhurried rate. Curle heard it as it went down the stairs, through the hall, across the garden, and finally lost the sound as the creature would have been crossing the road into the woods.

Curle always insisted he was not dreaming, and was wide awake... but he could also never offer any explanation for the strange visitor, or reason for the visit. Care to guess?