There's a dead fox next to my car and some crows are pulling at its entrails,

[Monty92]

Blimey. Finchley sounds like it's gone a bit post-apocalyptic. Your first sentence sounded like a Ted Hughes poem.

The tricky bit is going to be getting my son into the car later without him spotting the mangled, bloodied flesh all around us

Currently his only context for understanding mortality is that George Michael died (we often drive past the makeshift shrine outside his old house). If he sees the fox he's gonna assume that's how poor George met his maker too

[Burney]

The tricky bit is going to be getting my son into the car later without him spotting the mangled, bloodied flesh all around us

Currently his only context for understanding mortality is that George Michael died (we often drive past the makeshift shrine outside his old house). If he sees the fox he's gonna assume that's how poor George met his maker too

In hippy/Injun circles, I believe it's known as a 'sky burial'. Maybe you should try and euphemise your way out of the situation?