A fox jumped on my bed last night!

[largeprintagathachristie]

Feeling a little shaken by two visits into the bedroom by a fox over the last two nights. Ground floor flat in urban area. Lots of urban foxes around. I've always actually loved seeing them around late at night (and sometimes in the daytime) but what's happened just feels too close.

Bedroom has patio doors but no window whatsoever, so I tend to have the door open a bit for ventilation; just enough for the cat to get through. We're protected from the road by vegetation and a fence. We don't have a garden.

Night one: DP and I woken by a mighty kerfuffle in the bedroom, unearthly fox screech, cat going bananas etc. In the morning found one of DP's slippers (well, slides) outside some metres away.

Stupidly I thought that was a one off and left the bedroom door open again for ventilation last night, just enough for the cat to get through. At what turned out to be 2.30am, same kerfuffle only much much more. A fox was on the bed - it was all so fast but DP says he hit out at it and it dashed back out. I rushed to look outside and saw the outraged cat chasing a fox around the corner of the property. There are muddy fox-sized paw prints on the white bottom sheet which is where it landed, and obvious muddy claw marks

Two items of evidence outside this morning:

• a half eaten piece of toast I assume scavenged and dropped
• a manky stinky pair of jogging bottoms, not ours, probably scavenged from the charity clothing bin nearby where there's usually a pile of clothes on the ground

I always thought reports of foxes coming into houses were a bit of a myth so I'm a bit disconcerted. And on hot nights I really really need to be able to have the bedroom door open more than a crack.

Am googling deterrent ideas but any thoughts welcome.
We're definitely on its nightly route.

Yes, there's a fair amount of fried chicken pickings for them in my part of town too!

'door screen' and 'grille' –that's the words I was searching for...

Fleas. Mange.
But with the Insta-fortune the OP can just buy a new pad and set fire to the old one.

There are a fair few foxes where I am but I can't figure out what they eat. There isn't any accessible food.

OP that fox is far too brazen for its own good, hope you can keep it out.

Cat sounds quite brave if it was chasing fox around!

That is why I stopped feeding the foxes a few years back. They were becoming far too tame and there were genuine stories about foxes nibbling ears and the like. I did have a fox come in a couple of times when I had the back door open but when they saw me, they ran out. My neighbour, too, stopped feeding them (had one die at the bottom of their back garden).

The foxes still come in the back garden and I have to say they look no worse off for me not feeding them. We are not far from woods and other green spaces where they can catch wildlife, which is what they generally do.

So many foxes in London, I moved out to the countryside and saw 4 foxes in 8 years, recently in Muswell Hill I saw 6 foxes on a 15 min walk home!

I moved out from London and couldn't believe how different countryside foxes are. Countryside foxes are shy and run away if they see a human where as I used to have urban foxes shagging outside my bedroom window every year and they would even flinch when people saw them.
M

Similar happened to DS once.

First floor bedroom of our old house, under his bedroom window was the conservatory and a wall ran alongside it which was stepped, so foxes could climb on the conservatory roof.

One hot, summer night DS was asleep, window wide open when he heard a noise. His bed was under the window so he sat up, pulled back the curtain and came nose to nose with a very large fox on his windowsill. To this day I'm unsure whether DS or the fox had the bigger fright but he always kept the window shut after that 😂

To this day I'm unsure whether DS or the fox had the bigger fright

When you said about the fox in your room , I've immediately thought fleas , lice and ticks . I'd be fumigating your bedroom !

Eek. I often have our patio doors open in the living room as it's in the basement and the room gets quite damp. I sometimes worry a squirrel or other animal will get in. I might go and close them now...

DH often falls asleep on the sofa with the back door open. We're in zone 2. I'll be shutting it from now on!

I sleep with the french doors wide open but ours open out onto a first floor balcony and we live rurally on a gated estate so limited chance of anyone coming in. I wouldn’t do it in a ground floor urban flat.

@Sisisimone

How is it Pearl clutching or hysterical to advise a poster not to sleep with their door open? It's not. Just someone trying to sound oh so superior and failing badly

Hahaha! As I said previously mumsnet at it's best! :)

But heavenhotel why was it “mumsnet at its finest” and Pearl clutching and hysteria, to advise the op not to sleep with her ground floor door open all night?

Put it this way, I don't leave our kitchen patio doors open in the evening anymore since we got a security camera out there and I have on camera rats, mice, foxes, squirrels, magpies and strange cats all wondering around on the patio quite happy to take a step into the kitchen if it's quiet.

@TheYearOfSmallThings

tame it and make it your loyal companion, Instagram him cosleeping with you, sitting up to the breakfast table, etc

Fleas. Mange.

I follow someone on tiktok who lives in London and has befriended the urban foxes in his garden. He buys mange medicine from the vets and puts it in raw chicken and then throws the raw chicken round his back garden. Mange free foxes.

@burritofan

A simpler solution might be to leave the door open, befriend the fox, tame it and make it your loyal companion, Instagram him cosleeping with you, sitting up to the breakfast table, etc, monetise the fuck out of this whimsical twist to your life, and buy a house with air-conditioning or upstairs bedrooms to leave open for the owls to swoop in.

😂😂😂😂

If a cat can get in through a small gap then a fox can as well. You’d be amazed at the tight spaces they can squeeze through - I’ve seen one get through a tiny gap at the side of our fence then trot up the garden on what was obviously a familiar route.

I’d be getting a cat flap for the cat and opening windows for ventilation.

This reminds me of staying at a friends house on holiday in SA. We slept in an outside annex with the patio doors open the whole visit. Obviously being SA they were security conscious, dogs, security patrolling etc.
I had quite enjoyed watching the monkeys that used to frquent their garden during the day. However I was not so happy towards the end of my visit when they said these monkeys were rabies carriers if you were bitten. Seems madness looking back that we slept with the doors open.

I would be concerned about mice and rats than a axe murderer 🤷🏻‍♀️

That would have frightened me too OP
Can you fit one of those sliding mesh mosquito screens - like you get in holiday apartments

@crimsonlake

This reminds me of staying at a friends house on holiday in SA. We slept in an outside annex with the patio doors open the whole visit. Obviously being SA they were security conscious, dogs, security patrolling etc. I had quite enjoyed watching the monkeys that used to frquent their garden during the day. However I was not so happy towards the end of my visit when they said these monkeys were rabies carriers if you were bitten. Seems madness looking back that we slept with the doors open.

In Japan we would get the occasional stray monkey in the house from time to time. Not rabid, but they were bastards to get out of the kitchen and sometimes did some proper damage…

My friend once left his patio doors open and came downstairs to find a fox lying on his sofa chewing his wife’s very nice leather handbag.

A fox on your bed.
Fleas and the mange !
Faints !!

Urban foxes are fearless, from what I've experienced (in a large town, down south). This is part of the reason we tend not to leave our patio doors open after dark, especially if we are not in the room to be keeping a watchful eye out. There are some large oak trees in neighbouring gardens and in the past we've had a whole family of foxes in our garden, plus rats, squirrels, toads, crows, magpies and a hedgehog. I like wildlife but draw the line at letting it enter our home.

I think some kind of screen door is the solution for you, but a cat flap is not a good idea as a skinny fox could probably get through.