Can foxes hurt cats?

[Idontknowhatnametochoose]

I know i can Google this, but interested in people's thoughts and knowledge.

My cat goes out for a short time during the night. I've only had her two years and due to her background she is used to having freedom at night. It's quite safe where I am, no busy roads and she generally stays near to my front door.

But we do get a lot of foxes around. They've never been an issue and my cat will steer clear. However last night while my cat was indoors looking out the window I heard a thudding noise and realised my cat had nearly fallen off the sill in a panic- there was a large burly fox staring at her and then at both of us! It was clearly fascinated, gave us the eye for ages. then ran off.

It got me worrying whether foxes ever try and catch a cat?

A friend watched her young cat being dragged away by a fox. It was a horrendous sight and she never saw her cat again.

We have a large, very healthy looking fox that lives and roams the streets around our house. My cat often walks to the shop with me, waits outside and then walks back with me. But the last time we did our return stretch at about 7pm she suddenly got all puffed up and nervy, and then hid in the shadows and skulked under the cars. I then realised she’d detected the fox which had also picked up on her. The fox then followed us home at a short distance, my cat walked the whole way along walls or under cars. I have no doubt the fox was looking for an opportunity to pounce and even when I kept shooing it away it would run away briefly but then turn and follow us again. My cat is pretty tough and is always taking on other cats that have the audacity to enter her territory, but she wasn’t prepared to take on a fox and the fox was keen to follow her.

Thanks everyone. So sorry to hear of those who have lost a cat to a fox. It is making me feel very wary now.

I've caught my boy cat playing with foxes and came home to him curled up napping with one.

Yes - last year I found some kittens and their mum in my garden they were tiny about 4/5 weeks. Mum would often leave them for hours I called all the local rescues who had no space and told me just keep feeding them . I barely slept during that time as was terrified as we have so many foxes around here . One night it rained too and I was so worried 😟. We’ve had pets taken before by a fox so I was very relieved one didnt get the kittens

We love foxes and love our cats. But we always keep the cats in at night. We had one cat who used to chase them- but even dogs were afraid of her. But I have witnessed the very recent aftermath of an early morning fight between fox and a neighbour's cat and the cat was fatally injured and died in front of us. I never want to have to see that again- we were the ones who collected the cat and had to tell our poor neighbour.

Oh god how awful! So sad all the examples of poor cats hurt by foxes on this thread 😢

It's more likely the other way around. Foxes are very wary of similarly sized (and much smaller) ball of fury and screeching rage with needle sharp claws at every corner.

A vixen with cubs (not this time of year) might be braver, but unless the cat has already been injured by a dog or car, the most likely occurrence is that the fox will freeze briefly and then slink off in the opposite direction or just pretend the cat doesn't exist.

Then tend to keep away from each other, but my sister's next door neighbour had a big old Tom who came back battered after a night out. They took him to the vet and it was confirmed a fox that had got him from the bite marks.

I live in the woods and there are all sorts of things around, so my cats are indoor only. They have unlimited access to a large courtyard that is cat proofed and we are building a zoo like enclosure in the woods for them. I just won't risk it.

Yes! As my dog found out when a car came into our garden!

My very young cat was killed by a pack of foxes one night several years ago. The neighbours ran out to try to save it but it was too late. So yes, they can and do attack cats.

My friends house backs on to a cemetery where foxes roam around. Her cat was savaged by the foxes and she was landed with a £12,000 vet bill!! 😱😱

Badgers are incredibly dangerous. I have seen them leave teeth marks on a steel spade.

Yes
they killed our gorgeous cat in May
we are still traumatised

Yes they can and do fight- depends on both the cat and the fox who will come off worse though.

I'm so sorry to hear this, how distressing for you all x

It’s worth listening to the Cat’s Got Your Tongue podcast with Stewart Lee as a guest. Stewart’s cat went missing for a month, and during that time Stewart searched his neighbourhood at night for signs of his cat. He noticed on these searches that a lot of cats and foxes seemed to be sitting amicably next to each other in gardens. There’s definitely foxes in our neighbourhood but it’s never been a problem for our cats, who have a cat door and can go out whenever they like. In case you’re wondering, Stewart’s cat returned unharmed after a month.

Yes my cat was bitten by a fox when he was a kitten and I’ve caught him on camera being chased by one.

I currently have the same fear for my cat, we have quite a lot of foxes in the area and one bloody fox in particular is sitting outside our house every night barking. This has been going on for weeks. I am assuming he / she is marking their territory. DH thinks they are mates.

Our Cat is an absolute fearless bastard and loves winding up the local dogs so I’m really worried he’s got too big for his boots.

Picture of the fox in his/her usual spot.

I have had foxes for years and the cat and one of the foxes sleep in the garden at the same time. There have been a couple of stand offs between the cat and one of the younger foxes but I’ve always intervened. I would worry if I had a sick or very elderly cat but as the foxes are often around in the day I can’t see keeping the cat in at night would achieve anything.

My cats stare down foxes, who walk carefully around the perimeter of the garden away from the cats. My elderly, thin, very poorly cat plonked himself in the middle of the lawn staring one down a few weeks before he died.

At baseline, our domestic cats are never going to set out to kill a fox. But foxes are wild & will kill cats.
A domestic cat will never fight another animal or cat to the death because it hasn’t been taught from birth as a wild cat/kitten would be. As our pets have been brought into this life as domesticated creatures I believe we should try to protect them from the dangers (we already vaccinate & try to keep them off roads) they’ve not been given any basic instinct to protect themselves from.
Those cats that are seen resting etc near to foxes are only able to react to the fox in the way that they have always reacted to other cats. Foxes are always larger & on the lookout for their next meal.

They can of course but tend not to they tend to co exist quite peacefully. My mums cat was mates with a group of foxes. He'd cry to go out at night and they'd be waiting right at the bottom of the garden for him. Only time I've known a cat-fox friendship though.