Found this tuft of fur in my garden - what did it come from?

[Nomello]

Found this tuft of fur in my garden this morning. Anyone know what it came off?

We live on a quiet cul de sac. The last road before you hit countryside. Garden is hedged on three sides and I know foxes find a way in. We hear al sorts at night.

I have a dog but he is always supervised (you don’t want to know why). He’s also black so not from him.

Cat? Dropped by a bird?

Its 9 cm or so long

Of all the questions Mumsnet gets asked that are impossible to answer, this is the most impossible.

And possibly most bizarre. But it's a large field tbf

I think somebody's been brushing their golden retriever, put the fur out as nesting material, and a bird has picked it up but dropped a clump in your garden.

Something with white fur 🤨

My garden is fairly secure, we didn’t have foxes for years but I think they have found a gap somewhere.

It’s just a normal cul de sac garden on the edge of town. On the medium/large side as it’s not a new build. But we are not in the middle of nowhere with all manner of things passing through.

Einstein.

Boris Johnson as an outside possibility.

Cat fight.

Golden Retriever fur - they've been using a de-shedding tool.

People do it in fields and woods because birds use it for nesting (as a PP said). Chuck it in the bin.

I can't think of a wild animal with longish, blond fur like that, so it's got to be a domesticated animal. It's not sheep wool, and unlikely to be a goat. Not horse hair or from a cow or a pig. It doesn't look like rabbit or guinea pig hair to me. So that leaves cats and dogs, and it looks more like a dog's undercoat to me, than anything else.

I agree with the bird using dog hair for nest building theory.

I watch birds in my garden daily, picking up bits of bark, pulling coir from my hanging baskets and collecting any soft materials to use. Sometimes, they take off and drop bits.

This is far more likely than thinking foxes have found a gap in your fence! Set up a night vision camera and see.

Sorry that was a separate point really. We have found a couple of fox poos in the garden (not recently) and our rubbish has been strewn about.

On a slightly different note, if you treat your dog for ticks it transfers into their coat and can be toxic to some birds so just pick it up and bin it.

Polar Bear obviously

But no, its likely a bird dropped it. We brush our cat outside in the garden and the birds regularly take her fur tufts that come out.

The birds never take my dogs fur. We’ve tried. Offended

Kangaroo belly fur. The mum obviously caught the bottom of her pouch as she hopped over your fence in the night

Proof of the Yeti

That's the fur of the very rare, Whitesquatch.

Do you have Goldies though?😄 Goldie fur is particularly warm and soft...

Golden retriever 100%

they shed clumps of hair at this time of year. Will have blown in the wind.

I’m giving my shih tzu a haircut in the garden today. It’s a bit breezy so entirely possible that there is the odd tuft in the neighbours’ gardens. The bits from her tail could easily be this long.

looks like the hair from an elderly pony. Bird has picked it up to take it home and dropped it along the way.

I have a dog but he is always supervised (you don’t want to know why).

Did your dog eat Mr Whiskers (and that is the remains?)

Foxtail fur or badger or a bird dropped it. Take your pick.

I'd guess it's come from a Huskie there blowing their fur right now. The birds love the fur for lining their nests and often drop it on the way to their nests.

Someone has just clipped their horse’s mane or leg feathers?

Possibly dropped by nest-building birds?

We do live next to stables