It's all happening today. I have always thought cats and fox aren't meant to be ''friends'' in the wild, however I know there are exceptions, and I have witness quite a few times now my cat and our local fox actually do enjoy playing with each other every so often.
Both me and my partner have been left gobsmacked at the amazing sights.
On all occassions, Jameson has been the dominating one, and the fox acting similar to a dog wanting to play.
To give the full story (and I'll try to be brief):
This morning, I woke up with 5 kilos worth of cat attached to my bare arm. Jameson was in SUCH playful mood, he got me out of bed at 7am, after having attacked my toes several times as well as the ususal imaginary enemies under the duvet. He got his breakfast, I had my coffee and off he went outside.
I decided to do a bit of gardening, and not long after I went outside, he came back to the garden, VERY playful and we had a nearly 2 hour long playing session; me throwing lumps of earth, him attacking them, throwing them up in the air, juggle them etc. There is lots of shrublands behind our garden, and Jameson spends hours of his days there, so after a couple of hours of playing I thought he'd be tired and go for his afternoon nap indoors. Not him. He disappeared, I went inside. 20 minutes later my partner yells that Jameson has got a bird, and tells me to lock the flap so he doesn't bring it inside. Done. I went outside to look, but didn't see him at all. However, in our neighbours garden was the local fox! (a big fat healthy one!) - just staring at me with a dead bird in his mouth. I thought it was a bit of a coincidence and then I looked slightly to the right of the fox, and lo and behold there sits Jameson. A bit confusing at first, but after some guessing work we worked out that it was the same bird, but not quite sure who actually caught it. Jameson walked over to the fox and made a growling sound (to drop the bird, we guess) but the fox wouldn't let it go. The fox starts running, and Jameson after it. They both stop. Fox drops bird, Jameson tries to get it. They looked like two dogs playing tug-a-war. There was nothing aggressive about it. After a while they both run off in same direction - I run inside to get camera.
Come back out, Jameson in our garden - and suddenly fox appears in neighbours garden again. Jameson jumps over fence to greet him, and they both run off. This I managed to catch on film (see link)
Few moments later Jameson comes back.. meowing looking at us as if he was saying ''mummy, daddy, the fox took my birdie''. We don't know who caught the birdie first.
My first reaction is always to worry Jameson will get into trouble. But he is so dominating over the fox (although it's a big one!) he just seems to have the situation under control. I know others have had their cats attacked by fox, and that is obviously a worry. This fox is so tame though, we found him in our garden playing with a tennis ball recently. He will let us get really near too.
I await Jameson to come inside any minute now, completely knackered, and probably sleep for days. He deserves it though, his day has been very active to say the least.
Here is the short clip of them. Its short but sweet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tBzcnTIO2AHere is the first picture I managed to take - the first time I ever saw them ''play''. Cat moving forward hissing, and fox moving backwards. Later Jameson jumped up on wall and fox sitting below barking at him to come down.
It is a bad picture because it's taken from my kitchen, with the lights on indoors.
[img width= height=]http://a493.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/7/l_5866829baf9a3ec7e0a96cefaa27f7c4.jpg[/img]
