The last paragraph of the article pretty much sums up what they know, the rest of it is just speculation and conjecture.
It's a shame they didn't reveal the sex of the fox, vixens are okay to have around, but a dog-fox smells appalling. If it was a dog fox and a pet, its owner couldn't have had any olfactory senses!
Some people and animals form a bond, maybe the bond between this person and this fox was unusual and considered special by the society of the day, like these.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11424547
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txIO8CkQeQU&feature=related
Something is not right. This message is just to keep things from messing up down the road