To growl at a fox that is chasing me?

[ChasedByFox]

Well am I?

TLDR: I imagine a bite or scratch from a fox would require a tetanus jab and I don't have time for that, covid restrictions aside.

Full Story:
I was out running this morning at 5:30 (yes, I probably am certifiable) and a fox crossed my path. He began to follow me, so I ran a little faster. He matched my pace, so I ran faster.

By now I'm pretty much flying along, and this bloody fox is chasing me!

I'm panicking. I've only got five minutes left on my podcast, and I so want to finish it, because I'm on W9R3 of couch25k But if he attacked me, I would need to have a tetanus jab for a fox bite/scratch, surely?

So I growled at him, and he stopped in his tracks and shot away in the opposite direction

WIBU? Have I scared the poor fox for life?

Yes, obviously I've namechanged- I've been here donkeys years, and there's no way I'm going to be able to keep schtum in RL about being chased by a fox!!

YABU- you cruel animal abuser
YANBU- he could give you rabies! and tetanus, and fleas, and follow you home and attack your children

My own (rural) experience has been that young foxes are tame-ish in their first year of life usually until the end of September - you can call them to you with squeaking noises or a torch.
From October onwards they seem to know to keep at more of a distance.

What a fabulous encounter you had though 😊

My DD is now berating me for not bringing it home to be her pet

We live in a flat, without a garden. It could share her room! She's feed it!

I wish I could say she was 6 or something, but she's almost 15

We had one that hung around our garden for a while, chewing on shoes and footballs and shitting everywhere. Once, after it bit through the rope to the kids swing, I got really mad and the next time I saw it sunning itself at the end of the garden I ran at pace towards it. I was half way towards it when it got up to a seated position, 75% there when it stood up and then when I was 90% of the way the bastard started running - towards me

Brilliant!

They're getting too bloody tame. They should generally be much more wary of humans but they're not.

@OnCandyStripeLegs That is one bold fox!

I think urban foxes must be far less shy of people than rural ones.

I think it might have ear buds in. Happily skipping along to “Why can’t we be friends”.

Aw poor fox. I'd be thrilled, I love foxes and so rarely see them. I don't think it was going to attack you but they shouldn't get comfortable with humans so you probably did it a favour, there are bad people that would hurt a fox that doesn't keep its distance from humans.

@Nottherealslimshady I'd never hurt an animal. I growled because I really couldn't see myself being able to kick it off me if it had gone for me!

@MiddleClassProblem I reckon it was "What does the fox say?"

This made me laugh. I did the same thing, although more like a snarl, at a huge raccoon I kept meeting on my front porch first thing in the morning when I went out to get the newspaper.

It snarled at me so I snarled back. It turned around and ran.

I live in Canada, and raccoons can become quite the urban creature, knocking over garbage and generally being pests. Several years in a row they dug huge holes in the garden under the front porch to build a nest and have the kits in there. We had to hire people to come and move Mom and babes. She was very persistent, tearing boards off the side of our house and uprooting shrubs.

We have a couple of foxes where I live that just wander around the streets in the middle of the afternoon.

People feed them and they become tame. Only problem is they also poo everywhere, not just in the woods but all over the pavement.

I remember being out walking in a huff one night, and a fox came up and joined me. We just walked along, me muttering away, him looking sympathetic. . .

That was weird enough.

Then it happened again. Different area, so not the same fox!

I'd be thinking; ' What's chasing the fox?'

Aw @mbosnz a sympathetic fox? That's lovely.
It was a bit too dark to.judge this one's mood, so I wasn't taking any chances.

@ChasedByFox How do you know that Mr or Mrs Fox wasn't doing the den couch to 5K too?
He/She's probably gone back home & told his family about the mad wild woman who growled at him.

@Qwom I misread your bottle of gravel as a bottle of gravy & thought that's a bit mental as surely by you would be encouraging the fox.

I once saw a cat being chased by a fox that was being chased by a cat 🐈 🦊 🐈 rather bizarre.

@LoveFall ripping the boards off your house? wow. At least foxes make their own homes.

@TracyBeakerSoYeah OMG! A cat chasing a fox chasing a cat? WTH were they up to?

Benny Hill theme plays

I have no idea unless they were doing the feline version of 'dogging'
Or they were running for the bus?
As I was on my way to catch the bus into the city for a night out with friends.

😂 Did you have a little mid-run meat snack in your pocket?

My dad used to feed chorizo and salami to foxes on the beach whilst fishing. Bloody middle class Hove types them foxes were.

I met a paramedic recently who was telling me about her drunk friend being bitten by a badger outside the pub because she thought it was a dog. I don’t trust any wildlife now.

Yup, pulling the boards right off. We tried putting wire behind the boards and all. Still managed to get through. The dark enclosed space under our front porch was apparently prime real estate.

I have since moved even nearer to the forest, which is right behind our building. I often see raccoons lumbering around when I take the dog out last thing. But at least they don't tear up our apartment building!

Maybe it was trying to act as your personal pace setter :)

Side note - yes we do have rabies in the UK!!! Someone died of it in Scotland a few years back, it's in the bart population, very, very rare, but still a possible issue if you get bitten by a bat, or your dog/fox jogging pal does.

Ha, yes, the BAT population. Although the thought of it going round only in people/animals called Bart is funny.