Well, walkies has been rather exciting this week, mummy and I had a furry friend who wanted to join us. Mummy had to go to work one day and came home quite late, well past our normal walkies time. I had all but given up hope that she was coming home at all but as I paced round the flat meowing at daddy to ask when mummy was coming home and when would she take me walkies daddy said, “she’ll be home soon Jenny and even though it’s a bit late she’ll still take you out for walkies.”Well eventually I heard the cupboard open and daddy clipped me into my harness just as mummy walked in the door. Yey mummy’s home I shouted and bolted for the open doorway, Daddy handed mummy the lead and off we went.
We went about our normal walkies and then I smelled something and stopped what I was doing and turned round, as I did mummy did too and there he was just standing there watching us a young fox 🦊. Mummy said that he didn’t seem scared of us or angry at us, just curious, standing there just watching us. It was like he hadn’t seen a human out walking a cat before! I know there are foxes about as I can smell them when I’m outside in the gardens and in the hedge in the park that I love exploring through the railings. They also dig their homes in our lawn and sometimes when they dig a new entrance and I’m running around I fall into it coz I don’t know it’s there! I normally have a roll around outside their front door, just to let them know I’m around and these are my gardens but they don’t normally come out to say hello though so I thought I’d better check him out to make sure he’s friendly in case I need to defend mummy.
It started to get dark quite quickly and I wasn’t scared of Mr. Fox, he wasn’t running towards me or making lots of noise so I went to say hello to him and ask him if he wanted to come with us on our walkies with mummy and me. When I went to say hello to him though he ran off under the rail and into the hedge in the park. Mummy and I carried on our walkies but with Mr. Fox moving about in the hedge the rustling noise was just too much to ignore so I went to see what he was doing. As I went closer I felt mummy lock the lead, she knows me too well and knows that I can sometimes go from a standing start to full speed in a split second and she said she didn’t want me following Mr. Fox through the railings. I sat there straining at the lead trying to inch forward but mummy was stood firm. I had my ears in full hunting mode, pointing up and on full alert, head held high and proud so my ears could hear every teeny tiny noise. No matter how quiet Mr. Fox thought he was I could hear his every move.
I was also catching his scent on the air around me, whilst listening I was taking deep breaths, my super blindie senses working together to pinpoint exactly where he was. Mummy was laughing a bit and saying how funny it was that she was relying on a blind cat to see where the fox was! I was right every time though, as mummy pointed her camera in the direction my ears were pointing there were the foxes eyes shining back at her from inside the hedge. Whilst I was playing hide and seek with him he was talking to me, challenging me to find him, he was chirping at me almost like a bird. Mummy said she could hear it as well and it really didn’t sound like the noise you would expect to come from a fox. Normally at night whilst I’m out on the balcony I hear them barking to each other and sometimes if I hear this when I’m out on walkies I head for the nearest tree and climb it! This was different though and sounded friendly and playful so mummy let us keep playing. Then after a while he wandered off, I scanned the hedge with my ears and listened extra hard as I was enjoying playing with him but I couldn’t hear him at all anymore so we both thought he had gone off to play elsewhere in the park.
Then mummy decided we had enough excitement for one night it was time to head home. As we headed back indoors we heard a noise behind us and there was Mr. Fox following us again wanting to join in with our walkies. With the evening getting darker by the minute and mummy finding it harder and harder to see Mr. Fox and he was getting a bit too curios for her liking so she decided it was really time to go indoors and scooped me up and in we went. Night night Mr. Fox.
Then on another day we were out walking and I heard this big boundy, boundy sound of paws coming towards me at full speed. I recognised the noise from one of my doggie friends but this one smelt different, not one I knew the smell of. The paws stopped a little way away from me and I could hear it huffing and puffing, being really noisy and sniffing at me which was quite scary. I lashed out to tell her to back off a bit, spitting at her and went to give her a good slap, I missed, but I’m sure she got the message. Mummy told me off and said I should be more friendly to the doggie, that she had never met a cat before and was just coming to say hello to me. She said I was being rude and should be a bit more friendly next time. She was confused why I was so sacred of the friendly doggie but not of the fox. You have to see this from my point of view though, the fox was quiet, slightly standoffish and didn’t rush towards me noisily. The doggie on the other hand was just so full on and rushed towards me without giving me any time to prepare to say hello, after all I can’t tell happy rushing paws from attacking rushing paws. When something rushes towards me so full on it puts me on edge and my street cat instincts kick in and I go into defence mode. Sorry doggie, maybe we can try to be friends another time when you’re not quite so excited to see me.
Jenny’s Story 