Fox lore

I collect odd bits like this, for easily guessed reasons: Kitsune Books

Sometimes I wonder why and how great-grandfather Adam Fuchs (who migrated to Indiana from Darmstadt-Hesse shortly after the American civil war) came by our bestial surname. Did an earlier ancestor smell bad, like a fox? Or have red hair? Or -- as I would prefer to believe -- was he (or she) especially crafty or magical, like the kitsune?

Illustration from Kobold Quarterly