Some of you probably knew this was coming but I didn't know it was going to be this fast. Here is the sequence of events tonight..
Around 10:15pm tonight I hear a cat scream in my backyard like when cats are fighting or getting hurt. I turned on the flood lights in the back and went to my bedroom window. These are very powerful lights and I have positioned them so I can see most of the hill that starts about 23yds from the back of the house I looked around and quickly spotted a fox, probably the same one that's been visiting frequently, in the back by the trees about 26yds out. I then see her look up at this one tree she was standing under. She then circled the tree once, looked up again and took off. I got the big Mag flashlight and spotted the neighbor's cat 15-20ft up the tree. This cat is kind of small and only about a year old. She doesn't weigh more than 5-6lbs because I picked her up just a few weeks ago and we sometimes feed her. The fox was about 3x her size.
I kept checking the tree with the flashlight from the window and by 11pm she must have climbed down because I couldn't see her anymore. I couldn't help but think if I had caused this incident by inviting the fox in with the cat food and table scraps I leave outside for the Starlings and crows. The fox could have easily killed this cat and I have no idea if she was already injured. It sounded like the fox may have bit her.
I fell asleep just before Midnight but then at 12:35am I woke up to the fox barking again! If you want to know what a fox bark sounds like Google it and listen to audio and see video of foxes barking or calling each other. So now I am like what the hey!! I get out of bed contemplating how I am going to shut this fox up. This is the 4th night in a row this fox has been barking and waking me up. Now I 'm getting very annoyed because I really need to get some sleep as I have to work again tomorrow morning. The fox's bark was very loud like it was outside my window. Maybe she was protesting that I had not put any food for a couple of days. I had put out some table scraps 2 nights ago that consisted of mostly Chicken bones but my wife said a crow and some Starlings did short work of it yesterday and today while I was at work. I only saw a couple of bones in the bowl earlier tonight. I was walking towards the other room where I had left the window open in case I needed to shoot some more skunk tail (see my reply to Ray about getting rid of skunks) when the barking suddenly stopped. I went back to bed and 2min. later the Ding Donger went off! Now I am just PO'd and my wife is giving me some very bad looks.. I turned it off, grabbed the Condor .25, loaded a JSB 25.4gr pellet and with the gun light on I went to the other room and quietly approached the open window.
It's the fox again. Not sure if it's the same one but it kind of looked a little smaller than usual. It was still a good size animall. In any case, now I know why they say foxes are smart. She was circling the food bowl which has a couple of chicken bones left in it and was looking around for danger. It seemed nervous and very cautious and even looked up at me or the gun light from only 18yds away where the bowl was, but then approached the bowl. I was just in a PO'd mood lacking much sleep, so when the fox put its head down and started chewing on a chicken bone, I just put the Condor's crosshairs right "between its eyes", went up a little, and squeezed. I heard a muffled sort of "thud", and the fox fell immediately to its side. It stretched its neck and legs for 1-2secs and that was it.
I got my 1st fox! Now why don't I feel that great about it? It's my dang temper. Same reason I shot those 2 skunks. They woke me up needlessly so many times and when they showed no fear towards me I got PO'd and shot them. 2min. later I was like what have I done? (that smell! hehe). I kind of felt the same with the fox. It's a beautiful animal and didn't really want to shoot it and was going to try to wait until next Fall/winter. On top of that it was a female, which might explain why it looked smaller to me. I could swear the other one that came to eat the cat food in previous days was like 20-25% bigger.. with a larger head. Perhaps a male? This fox's *_*_*_*_*_* also looked like they were being "used".. Maybe it had young from last Spring/summer in the den? Well no doubt "dad" will take care of them cause they should definitely be old enough to eat solid food. I felt like this fox was taking over my property and the incident with the cat tonight was the last straw. It cerntainly didn't help the fox's chances of survival.. in my backyard. I will not stand by while they eat my neighbor's pet cats.
Ok so check out the shot. Perfectly mid-center right above & between the eyes
Condor = surgical precision, hehehe. First time I wasn't shaking or anything and my heart wasn't pounding as with raccoons and G-hogs. I guess because I was just angry at that point so I wasn't really thinking about it too hard. I just aimed and took the shot fairly quickly. This fox weighed somewhere between 16 and 18lbs. Had I stretched it out it would have almost covered the length of the Condor. I felt its fur and to my surprised it felt like it had several ticks - too many bumps on the skin. Its tail is very thick and the tail bone also seemed wide as well. Its canines were about twice as big as a raccoon's or possum's and I 've seen a lot of those up close. I was surprised how long the upper ones were when I lifted its upper cheek - twice as long as the bottom ones and they they looked just like a wolve's with a good amount of curvature.
Anyway, this post is very long so I 'll stop here and go get some sleep.
Here are the obligatory pics of my 1st predator. I had the flood lights off so any nosy neighbors would not be wondering why my backyard was all lit up. I was using a flashlight so I can take the pics with the digital camera.
