First Sight Of The Fox

Our neighbour Marty had told that his 4 year old son Sam had seen a fox in our garden. We had no reason to think this was not true -- although evidently the abundant local rabbits could outrun him. Early this morning we saw the fox for ourselves. He had his paw through the chicken cage and had pinned Katie to the ground!

By the time I had raced down the stairs the fox was gone and Katie was back on her feet, albeit rather wobbly. Shirley had abandoned her usual calm and was clucking mightily. Marty had seen it too and came down for a chat. A few feathers had been pulled but otherwise all was back to normal.

I think the sly fox had hidden behind the kid's playhouse and jumped out and ambushed Katie. Here is a picture of Hannah and Rachel feeding the chickens yesterday morning (they take turns to "be in charge"). The fox attacked on the corner by the playhouse.

The fencing on the cage is rather widely spaced (2" wide by 4" tall) and evidently I will have to think about further security measures. Putting some denser mesh around the bottom would not hurt, for starters.