He gently smiles back as he hugs him and squeezed him tight as he lifts him up, whirling him around, and then gently settled him on his feet while being wrapped in his cloud of tails. "You're a clever fox who knows how to hide." He said, as he pets between his ears again. 

"But forgive me. It must be stuffy waiting in there. It's a clever hiding place that I couldn't find you anywhere else." He grins a rare one. "Do I get to claim you as my fox as a reward? Or the fox would like to be rewarded for his patience?"