Midnight Beasts

[londonbard]

I blogged the story of the midnight foxes on the 7th May, but I haven't told it locally because the neighbours were away and there were no witnesses to an odd story. I really wondered if I'd been dreaming after my own experience, it was quite like a nightmare I used to have.

The man who contacted me urgently on Friday did so because I'm the secretary of the Residents Assoc. He then e-mailed me to confirm
____________________________________________________________________

Further to our telephone conversation I am writing to confirm the
details of the alarming incident I related earlier.

I live at X-Road (The next street.) At around 3AM this morning (16th May)
I rounded the corner of XRoad and GRoad only to
witness, to my horror, a fox with a dead, black, white-socked cat in
it's mouth standing in the middle of the road between my home and the old people's Home.

I stood stock still about ten feet from the fox, in a state of what I
can only describe as horrified confusion - I suppose I had some
illogical hope that the cat might show signs of life and that the fox
would drop it and retreat when it noticed me. To my great surprise the
fox simply stared at me for a few minutes before proceeding to worry and
tear at the dead cat in the middle of the road, seemingly unconcerned
either by my presence and with no hint of a fox's usual instinct to hide
from view at the approach of a human being. This seemed completely at
odds with the behaviour any fox I have ever seen in thirty years of
living in this area, so it is something of an understatement to say that
I was disconcerted by this animal's behaviour.

I was about to walk into my home when to my great alarm I noticed a
black cat that I believe is owned by the Moroccan gentlemen residing at
1 XRoad staring at the fox and the dead cat from one of my
neighbours steps a few feet away.

I immediately became very concerned for the black cat's welfare and
attempted to shoo it away. For some reason it seemed intent on staying
and refused to be deterred - perhaps it was some sort of companion to
the dead cat, or else it was simply interested in events and is
particularly reckless.

Not knowing what else to do I approached the fox until I was very close
- possibly only five or six feet away - in the hope it might leave. I
was reluctant to lunge or shout at the fox or appear in any way
aggressive - its unusually brazen behaviour made me reluctant to provoke
it. I was astonished to see the fox merely stare at me again before
returning it's attention to the dead cat. I then tried various methods
to make it leave - jangling my keys, clapping and so on. After what
seemed an inordinately long time it trotted away in a languid fashion
it was only a few feet further away and continued to worry at the dead
cat. I was eventually able to make the fox move away by painstaking
degrees until it went underneath a parked car.

All this time the black cat I mentioned previously had been moving to
keep the fox in view. When the fox slipped under the car this cat slunk
up to within a few inches of the car and looked underneath. In a flash
the fox sprang out and began chasing the cat. I then proceeded to run
after the pair of them in
something of a panic. It seemed clear to me that the fox was gaining on
the cat, which turned sharp right down the Close in an attempt to
escape. To my mind the fox was certain to catch it, so I began shouting
and stamping my feet. Thankfully this caused the fox to break off the
attack - however it did not run away but doubled back towards the dead
cat, passing only a car's width from me.

I was so disturbed by this incident that I was unable to get to sleep
until 6AM . Instead I spent some time researching the behaviour of the
urban fox on the internet. The majority of expert opinion seemed to be
of the opinion that such behaviour is rare in the extreme.As we
discussedon the telephone, the fox does seem to be displaying a bizarre
and unsuual pattern of behaviour. I am therefore extremely concerned
for the welfare of pets in the area - in particular other cats and
small dogs.

As this matter does not seem to fall under the remit of the TMO I
thought I would contact you in the hope that at the very least there
might be some way of warning other residents to keep small animals
indoors at night. I did think of putting up a couple of notices on trees
in XRoad. However due to a family health crisis I am due to
travel to .... To compound the problem I am
simultaneously trying to deal with issues concerning my kitchen
refurbishment. I therefore have absolutely no time - even the time spent
composing this email is a problem for me. I don't own a printer and
therefore would have to book time at the library in order to print any
warning notices which would be problematical. I was hoping someone
involved with the resident's association might know of someone kind
enough to do this or to warn residents in some other way. The thought of
another much-loved pet being killed is preying on my mind somewhat.

I know that when incidents like this are reported some witnesses have
been accused of having an anti-fox or pro-hunting agenda and lying to
promote this. I must stress that I am in no way anti-fox. In fact I am
vehemently against hunting and like to think of myself as an animal
lover - in fact I too might have been sceptical at such a story unless I
had witnessed these events for myself and my regard for animals is one
of the reasons I was so distressed to witness this incident.

Should you or anyone else require my contact details they are as
follows.

Identifying details removed.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Since his phone call and e-mail I've been ringing everyone I can think of, but Council, RSPCA, Dog Warden and Police all say it isn't their problem.

Two incidents (that I know of) ten days apart. (I hadn't told anyone; I've been housebound following another flood for much of it.) I suspect there may be others and people just kept quiet about them because they didn't expect to be believed.


The incidents took place on either side of the old peoples home. (Whats the betting the lair is in the grounds?)

Comments

[opyl.livejournal.com]

That's terrifying. I've seen videos on YouTube of a fox carrying a cat in its mouth, and another fox chasing a cat but a barking dog scared it away.

They are smart predators and probably know how to differentiate between humans that would really try to hurt them versus humans that are just trying to scare them off.