I wasn’t surprised by the deer. We had been bribing the deer with little gifts of spent pea vines and leafed out fruit tree suckers. It was the ‘blur in the background’ that caught my attention. It wasn’t the first time we had seen the fox.
The first time we spotted Mr. Fox was back in April, when he was visiting the bird feeding area. The crows had been spilling the food onto the ground where they could get it easier. Mr. Fox could get it too…how often I wonder?
The fox was probably cleaning up the dropped plums. My wife wonders if foxes can eat cats. It looks big enough.
Speaking of deer…
August 8…A baby deer appeared for the first time this evening. My very observant wife says the mama deer trusted us enough to bring out her fawn. My wife had been observing the doe for a few days. When the doe came out yesterday, she kept looking back at something, staring at what, another deer? Possibly her fawn, making sure it stayed put.
The proud mama… I’m quite sure the deer can see us looking at them through the window. How do I know? There are times in the spring when there’s nothing out on the board. The deer will just STAND AND STARE.
Adventures in Natural Beekeeping 
What neat visitor! Foxes can definitely eat cats. I once had to set up a trap in a nearby barn to capture feral kittens so that our resident fox(es) wouldn’t eat them. As I was going to check the trap, I saw the fox! I ran as fast as I could to beat it to the trap and I did 🙂 All kittens were placed in homes and the fox had to find something else to eat that night!
Kittens would have been a tasty meal, I’m sure. Kudos to you for saving them. Foxes are more numerous than I realized. In my 40+ years of living here, this is the first year of seeing them, but judging from these comments, they are very common.
It looks like a healthy fox. In the U.K. they are frequently infected with mange which is transferred to any dogs in the garden. It is a horrible infection but not likely to be picked up by your cat. Amelia
I’ve seen mange before and I’m relieved that this fox doesn’t have it. What is completely strange to me, is that I’ve never seen a fox that wasn’t in a zoo. Back in April we were just finishing up our dinner when my wife says, “What’s that?” It was the fox under the flowering cherry tree, making it’s way to the bird feeder. I’m thinking of putting up a field camera to catch all the wildlife we see there. Just today there was a wild turkey.
The deer . . . I’d like to be able to move my ears independently like that! It interests me to see that the deer takes no interest whatsoever in the fox. Is that because it just isn’t interested or that its habit is to sand stock still if it’s in doubt about anything happening near it.
I’ve moved since I last visited your blog – from Dorset to Halifax in West Yorkshire; from the coast and countryside to a post-industrial town. It’s a such a different environment I’ve started a new blog to save confusion. It’s Loose and Leafy in Halifax. New posts will go there from now on. Do hope you will take a look.
https://looseandleafyinhalifax.blogspot.co.uk/
Yes, that was interesting to watch the deer’s ears. Obviously, it heard the fox but considered it not a threat.
I’ll definitely check out your new blog. I like your style of writing. What a switch…moving from the coast to a busy town.
Anything that is easy prey I would guess, but cats are good climbers 🙂 What a lovely deer, good job you built that fence, I sometimes think we are growing food for the deer population around here they seem to have got used to our lazy dogs barking at them 🙂
I’d like to take credit for building that beautiful fence, but I hired it out…probably a good move because I would STILL be building it a year later. Our deer are on the honor system here. We try to share our bounty with them at the deer feeding area and they choose not to jump the fence.
This evening, as we’re eating dinner we felt very honored because a mama deer brought her baby out to munch on some plum tree leaves. Check out the new photo.
Perfect Bambi markings 🙂
Hi Pat, I found the answer in quotation marks below on the net.
We have no problems… We have two cats who roam free on our meadow property and there are definitely foxes around but the cats aren’t bothered by them at all.
“”When asked the question ‘will foxes kill my cat’ they had this to say: It’s possible but very unlikely. A typical urban fox home range can be also occupied by upwards of 100 cats, and most of these are out at night. Foxes and cats meet many times every night, and invariably ignore each other”.
Aug 29, 2014
Are foxes a threat to cats? A study by certified cat behaviourist Anita …
https://cat-behaviour-and-cat-grooming.com › …
Thanks for the reassurance, Lindylou. My wife doesn’t like to take any chances with her cats. She calls them in every evening before supper. Most of the time they’ll come scampering in from their travels.
I’m guessing that is a grey fox. We’re supposed to have a small population in Indiana, but I can’t say that I have ever encountered one. We do have a few red fox near the farm that I have ran across from time to time. They are good to have around for small rodent population control. They do put a hurt on the rabbits though.