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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Fucking foxes - coming into the house through the cat flap..

39 replies

FlamingoJane · 05/06/2019 04:53

My old boy cat is tearing his fur out in stress because foxes have been coming in through the cat flap. For a long while me & the vet couldn't fathom the hair loss? My cat who has always been very timid, made a large section of his back bald. (turned out he was hair-pulling due to stress). I finally got suspicious after ruling out medical reasons for hairloss & set up a web cam to see if other cats were entering the house. Imagine my horror to see it's a bloody fox! There is no food left out but it had been on my kitchen worktops! Foxes just don't give a toss these days do they? I'm now probably going to have to brick up the cat flap & make my old boy an indoor-only cat. Anyone else had this problem?

OP posts:
GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat · 05/06/2019 04:55

Can’t you just get a collar activated cat flap? Only letting your cat in.

OrchidInTheSun · 05/06/2019 04:56

Get a microchip catflap then only your cat can come in and out

Megan2018 · 05/06/2019 04:59

What a nightmare!
Are you in an urban area? We don’t have this issue as we’re rural and the foxes are timid, but I have hens and cats so if we did we’d shoot it. Which is perfectly legal if you have a license.
I’d call pest control. Some idiot (Mumsnet is full of them) will have been feeding it and giving it no fear of people which they usually have.
They are riddled with disease. Your poor cat.
We lost a partially sighted old cat to a fox too a few years ago.

Original poster
FlamingoJane · 05/06/2019 05:15

Yes some of the neighbours do feed them. I wouldn't mind if the foxes kept to their gardens.

OP posts:
NaomiS1 · 05/06/2019 06:02

We don't have a car flap, but last summer the kids were camping out in the garden and left the back door open... a fox snuck in in the night and ate our leather shoes! !! I was mortified! (Assume it was a fox - although could have been a rat!)

NaomiS1 · 05/06/2019 06:03

Sorry to hear about your poor car OP - YANBU!

NaomiS1 · 05/06/2019 06:04

cat

WhiteDust · 05/06/2019 06:08

Yes some of the neighbours do feed them. I wouldn't mind if the foxes kept to their gardens.

!Confused Like cats, foxes go wherever they like! Any garden or house they choose!

Hadenoughofitall441 · 05/06/2019 06:40

We have a Fox come into our garden every night. It’s winding my dog right up. It poos right on tHe ledge she has to walk past so then she gets all defensive. It moves her outside toys around the garden. Luckily we don’t have a cat flap so no chance because if it ever entered our house I’d have a dead fox situation going on. She spends 20 minutes every morning inspecting the garden.

MarieVanGoethem · 05/06/2019 06:41

Am so sorry Megan2018 but have just been giggling to myself imagining people in Inner London applying for shotgun licences to take out the local fox population. I know that wasn’t at all what you meant, but I’ve not had much sleep. Partly because my garden is Top Fox Nightspot & they’re noisy feckers. Can’t imagine the Met being superkeen on it as a plan though somehow. Am just wondering how long it would be before someone was trying “I thought he was a fox”/“he went all bodyguard to save the fox I was trying to shoot”/“a fox knocked my arm to make me miss their mate & hit another human instead” as their defence in a blatant drugs &/or gang-related shooting...

FlamingoJane
Your poor wee cat, am sorry he’s so stressed. I wonder if, even if Mr Fox didn’t actively mark, he’s left a scent your cat can smell through/underneath normal cleaning products? If you’ve got any of the cleaning products designed to remove pet smells it might be worth breaking them out? Am assuming you’ve already cracked on with the Feliway for helping the poor boy relax & supplements designed to help with healthy skin & fur etc; & it might be he’s happiest indoors for a wee bit as he’s an older chap & has been having rather a time of it. Once he’s ready to venture out again, a microchip catflap, as suggested by OrchidInTheSun, is the best kind of foxproofing available to you. Will keep out any other local cats who might be tempted to pop by, too.

Hope that your cat feels better soon, is so awful when they’re poorly in any way.

Antigonads · 05/06/2019 06:44

We didn't have a cat flap. We left a small high up window open for the cat. She jumped onto the back of a garden chair to get in. Would a fox do that?

A squirrel popped into my kitchen via the open conservatory door the other day. Dog never noticed.

UnicornBrexit · 05/06/2019 06:45

have just been giggling to myself imagining people in Inner London applying for shotgun licences to take out the local fox population

Don't laugh too loudly - they use air rifles here (London) and dump the corpses in the road because the council charges 50 quid to dispose.

dudsville · 05/06/2019 06:46

We've got foxes, after all this time I suspect one got in a couple of weeks back. During a spell of warm weather wwe left ark the fires and windows open, during the day. That night when I closed everything up I could smell fox inside the back door. It eases so strong I checked I hadn't actually entrapped one. The smell it's only just calming down.

Megan2018 · 05/06/2019 06:46

@Antigonads
Foxes can jump 7ft fences with no effort at all, it’d get in your window if it wanted to!

Wendingmyway · 05/06/2019 06:47

Get a microchip cat flap xx

Lobsterquadrille2 · 05/06/2019 06:48

Your poor cat. However, with regard to cat flaps - I've never had one and my cat is out if I'm out; in if I'm in unless she asks to go out. She's 14 and always been happy with this set up.

MrsJamin · 05/06/2019 06:48

Just get a microchip catflap, why wouldn't you?

Notyetthere · 05/06/2019 06:56

Definitely get a microchip cat flap. I remember other cats trying to get into ours all the time.

DontBiteTheBoobThatFeedsYou · 05/06/2019 06:58

Yup. Cat flap which only your cat can use.

TeddybearBaby · 05/06/2019 07:08

Vile!! The thought of them on the worktops with all those diseases as well! Your poor cat!

One was in my garden in broad daylight stalking my rabbit the other day, it was terrifying and one attacked my dog. They’re causing havoc around here atm!

stucknoue · 05/06/2019 07:11

We have a beautiful fox that comes through our garden nightly, drives the dog mad. But thy have as much right as us to exist. Nobody here is feeding it, though the chicken shop a few mins away is a problem because people dump litter on the street all the time (there's a bin but it's not used)

mrsmuddlepies · 05/06/2019 07:43

Years ago, we had a very stressed cat because other cats were using the cat flap to come in and eat her food. The vet told us to buy a magnetic cat flap and it worked a treat.
Everyone now seems to use the cat flaps operated by your pet's micro chip. They work a treat and you can use the same hole in the door.
The vet explained to us that our cat needed to feel safe in their own home.
I promise you that it will solve your cat's stress. Just replace your original cat flap with one that recognises your cat's individual chip.

daisypond · 05/06/2019 07:45

Microchip cat flap. We got ours when we discovered random cats in the house.

Phineyj · 05/06/2019 07:45

We had a similar situation but with a stinky spraying Tom and got a PetPort which solved the problem.

SoupDragon · 05/06/2019 07:53

I just block my cat flap with a board at night once the cats are in.

I hate foxes (although I'd definitely never harm one!). They mean I can never let my dog in the garden off-lead as they continually make holes in the fences.

I watched one chase my enormous cat down the garden once - he was terrified. Fox Lovers tried to tell me I was lying 🙄 I was heartened to see one of my new, smaller cats chasing one down the garden the other day. Fuckers!