Just about 12 hrs. ago, I was crossing the street to go home from my neighbor's house when out of the corner of my eye, I saw a small-ish animal running down the street.
I thought it was my cat at first (he's a big cat).
But no, it was a fox.
He was running along at a fair clip, perhaps having something to do with running unexpectedly into me. While sitting out on the neighbor's deck earlier, I thought I had heard a fox barking, down on the marsh.
Although the fox had nothing in its mouth, I immediately feared for my cat. He hangs out in the general direction the fox was heading. So I grabbed my flashlight and headed that way, too.
No sign of fox or cat, so I turned around to head back up the street. My flashlight caught the eyes of another animal, which I could easily identify as my furball. He was sitting at the edge of the street, looking very nonchalant about the whole deal.
I couldn't help but wonder if it was he that the fox had been barking at, and perhaps even running from! He does, however, now have a scrape mark above his eye.
We 'lost' a lot of cats out here last summer.
Monday, August 18, 2008
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7 comments:
Uh oh. Be careful, Kitty!
I tried to keep him inside afterwards, but he escaped in an unguarded moment. So far, he's OK.
That's the third time now I've spotted a fox roaming around near houses. Although I hear there's a whole family of them on the other side of the island, living in an abandoned house.
There is, however, a little possum who climbs the tree outside the living room window to get to bird feeder, and of course there are the skunks.
I thought it was amusing how the fox was high-tailing it out of there while my cat was just as relaxed as could be.
But I'm not minimizing the danger to him. It was a pretty big fox. Much bigger than the little dog down the street (but then, so is my cat).
Dearest blogger Jillian,
It could be a much worse and distressing situation. When I was growing up my family and I had to deal with the nefarious monkeys that lived in the nearby next woods to us. These animals, though resembling the human being, act in ways that are offensive to any sensible man, woman or child, and in fact many were the days when I would be sitting outside and become visually accosted by a monkey who was obvious in need to be finding a mate. Furry heathens!
So the quick brown fox as a neighbor might not be a bad thing, especially if the brave and noble fox eats the cats, which any right-thinking person knows are the tools of Satan himself.
- Mahatma Kote
hi,
foxes don't attack cats.
very rarely and then usually only to defend kits.
your cat could probably take the fox in a fight, or it would just climb somewhere the fox can't go.
sometimes a fox might try to scare off a cat if the cats around some regular feeding place the fox likes. but since its a house cat its very territorial and doubtful the fox could scare it away.
coyotes are a completely different story.
thanks,
sds
Hi sds,
That's what I had heard/read/thought also, but then 2different people last summer told me they saw foxes running along with cats in their jaws. Then a third person told me that if you find a fox den, it's always full of cat collars.
On the other hand, I once saw a beast along the marsh that I thought was a huge fox, based on the bushy tail, and it turned out to be a coyote. I think people don't realize what a coyote actually looks like.
hi,
well, they are wrong.
its very rare for a fox to go after a cat (kittens excluded).
i expect the last time you cut your cats nails you remember what they can be like.
no fox wants to come up against that. especially since even if they get the upper hand the cat just runs and climbs up where the fox can't get to.
coyote's are certainly a different story.
thanks,
sds
Thanks again, sds - and Mahatma, my cat is not a tool of Satan! I know most of them are, but I have beaten the devil out of him. With a stick that has been dipped in sanctified water. Twice a day.
You should have tried that on those monkeys.
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