Several, in fact. They’ve never been in our neighborhood before.
She’s concerned about the neighborhood cat.
The answer is:
Red foxes aren’t much bigger than the average cat, and aren’t better armed. I wouldn’t expect a fox to attack a cat unless it was desperate.
If the cat is being allowed outside, it is at far more threat from dogs, cars, and other cats. And it’s a threat to birds and other small animals.
Does this “neighborhood cat” belong to someone, or is it feral? If it belongs to someone, and there is concern about its welfare and that of birds and other small animals in the neighborhood, it should be kept inside.
Droughts in the west. Wildlife moving into the outer fringes of major cities for food and water. We see coyotes and even javelina (wild pigs=peckories) who go for pet foods and then pets. Hell, I ran into a coyote in my front yard in CENTRAL Phoenix at 4am, which was rather unexpected.
I wouldn’t leave a cat outside overnight, but that’s just me. IMHO
Foxes carry rabies and mange though. You don’t want them on your property.
I just want to say I’m sorry.
Most women describe me that way and I hate that it happened to the wife of someone I know. I’ll try to be better next time.
Promise
Hawks will fuck a cat’s shit up, that’s what I’d be afraid of.
Also owls. They’re not healthy for cats.
Congratulate your wife for me. Foxes are beautiful.
I’d be much more concerned about coyotes, which I would also expect in your area. In Tucson, cats make up 42% of urban coyotes’ diets.
The general consensus in our neighborhood is that coyotes go after cats, because their brains somehow tell them that cats are after the same kind of prey the coyotes are (rabbits, in our neighborhood) and by killing a cat they also eliminate the threat of that cat killing their own dinner. But foxes go after smaller things.
However, during the time when we saw foxes in our neighborhood, we woke up one day to find half a cat out in the street. So…
At the time we had one indoor-only cat and one that insisted he go out, but we always kept him in at night. Lots of cats disappeared during that time.
The foxes went away. I heard from a fairly reliable source that animal control rounded them up on account of they had sarcoptic mange. Now there are no coyotes and no foxes and probably literally tons of rabbits.
Do you have coyotes, too?
Mr.Wrekker goes on fox hunts. It’s not like the English do, on horseback. They let foxes loose from a fox pen (yes, they own the foxes). Then they let the dogs loose after a certain amount of time. Then they build a fire in a pit and open the ice chest (beer). They stay out all night listening to the dogs chasing the fox. No one ever catches a fox. The fox has a parole from fox jail. It is the most stupid way to hunt I have ever heard of. Ignorant, in fact. But what are you gonna do? Anywhoo, a lot of foxes are freed this way. I assume they either live their life out in the woods or travel to a place with better grub.
I have no idea if the cat is feral. He lets you approach sometimes but mostly keeps away. He’s been in the neighborhood for 2-3 years and manages to get through the winter. No collar, but he seems well-groomed.
Coyotes haven’t been an issue.
If it doesn’t have a collar, I would assume it’s feral. Maybe one or more neighbors give it food and think it belongs to them.
Like I said, foxes are probably among the least of a feral/outdoor cat’s problems.
Come to London. You can’t not see a fox, even if you try. Or hear them making fox babies when that’s the season. Ugh.
Cats are good at begging from neighbors. We keep ours inside. We often see the neighborhood outside cats have near misses with traffic.
Foxes can kill a cat, just like a bear can kill a mountain lion. It’s completely within the realm of possibility and it even happens from time to time, but foxes like most predators are lazy and they tend to like things that don’t bite back. They’ll take kittens with no compunctions, but a 10-lb. tabby is likely safe. Not that it never happens, but I wouldn’t spend my time worrying about it. Their primary prey items are very small, usually mice and voles. Even rabbits aren’t preferred and make up a minority of their diet.
Or the horrible screamy noise of the fox babies themselves. It’s like listening to someone being knife-murdered.
Urban foxes are generally pretty skittish and will avoid confrontation if they can. Most of the housecat-fox encounters I’ve witnessed have involved either a stare-off during which one or the other slinks away, or a ballistic spitting housecat beating seven kinds of hell out of a fox.
I don’t worry about foxes attacking our cat. I worry about this motherfucker.
There’s a local bar that sponsors a one day coyote hunt/chili contest each year. You pay an entry fee (pretty steep) that entitles you to all the beer you can drink. Whoever kills the biggest coyote takes the pot, minus the bar’s administrative fees.
I have been a judge in the chili cook off several years, which allows me to drink for free.
This happened for ten consecutive years (the bar changed hands last year). Nobody ever killed a coyote, but there were a lot of very drunk guys with rifles walking around in the woods. A few sprained ankles, one heart attack (guy died), but nobody ever shot anyone else.
This is why our 2nd Amendment rights are so important.
Out here, we have plenty of coyotes and some foxes, but the biggest predator of cats is dogs. Our backyard is fenced, but there’s a hole the landlord won’t fix. Cats come in and have a litter, and a pair of dogs (we know which ones, and even which house claims them) squeeze in and tear the cats and kittens to pieces. Animal control seems to go by a policy that if they don’t see the dogs in the act and no human is hurt, the dogs can continue their reign of terror. I don’t like the cats in the yard either (feral cats are bad news for ecosystems) but there’s a very small and ramshackle “mini-storage” facility across the street, and the owner feeds all the feral cats in the neighborhood every day.
Mr. CK got tired of burying dead cats and has jerry-rigged a patch for the hole in the fence. I do not know yet if it is effective.