I'll go with the crowd again: Keep your cat inside. She may not like it , but she will live. All of our cats have always been inside cats.
When I first read the post I tought the fox got your cat already. Go with the keep your cat inside idea.
I think it's unlikely that a fox would go after a cat, but there's always exceptions. I've seen cats go after foxes though. I've watched foxes, and they're mostly timid animals. I don't see a problem with having an outdoor cat unless you have more dangerous wild predators, live on a busy road, or if the cat kills too many birds.
Keep your cat indoors. It keeps your cat from becoming part of the food chain, which is only fair since she will be killing things. A redtailed hawk or golden eagle is perfectly capable of killing and carrying off a full grown cat, especially a female. They do that around here all the time. And raccoons are bigger threats than foxes - literally. They're also smart and perfectly willing and able to gang up on your cat if they decide to take her out for killing their kits. I should ask my brother if he ever wrote up his Night of the Raccoons account, wherein he and a friend had to rescue the friend's cat from at the very least dozens of raccoons ('They were EVERYWHERE!') who were in the process of dragging the cat to the pond to drown him after slicing his gut open. The cat did live...after thousands of dollars of surgery. --Moony
Don't let your cat out. My cat was a stray for a year, then I picked him up, and he's never been outside again (except in his cage). I am too afraid to let what is like my little brother outside alone. ...Plus we live in an apartment.
Speaking of kitty problems, something weird happened today... My mom and I were out for a walk earlier and I was telling her I saw a stray cat hanging around a building one day on my way home from my dad's. Well, next thing you know, as I'm talking about said stray cat, here comes another one (a kitten) darting towards us. We stopped and petted it for awhile and then it started following us 'till we got about half-way home. We would've taken it home but we have two big dogs who would rip it apart and make cat stew out of it. I felt so damn bad for the poor thing too because as we walked further and further away from it, it started meowing and we could tell it was distressed because it had no idea where it was going. I just wanted to ditch my mom then and there and give it a big hug. I swear, if I had my own place, I would carry the kitty home and go to the store to get a litter box and cat food. No cat deserves to be left out on the street to die; being the animal lover I am, that kitty would've gotten a good home if I had my own apartment.
Fences don't work for cats unless you get one specially designed for them with an extra section that inclines inward for at least two to three feet inside the top, like a prison fence, which makes it difficult if not impossible for them to climb over. --Moony
There are some cats in my neighborhood that must be outside pets, cause one of them has very clean fur and loves people. It's been really hard for me not to steal this cat, it's so lovable. Edit: Oh, and we found him/her outside in the rain one day. =(
Hey, one of my cats that lives up with my mother now used to beg to be let out in the rain all the time. Would meow and meow and meow, and eventually we just said okay, enjoy your wetness. Some cats are just weird.
Same thing happend to a friend of mine, but it was a coyote that ate his cat. He found blood on his driveway.
Keep your cat inside. She will get use to it. Also by keep your ca inside will: 1. Prevent getting parasites: ticks, fleas, internal parasites like GI worms 2. Decrease the chance of her fighting. Even if she's good at fighting, you don't want your cat fighting. Cats can get wounds or abscesses that can get so bad where you can't do anything to fix it. 3. Even if your cat can beat up a red fox, there's a chance it might get rabies if she's not up to date on her rabies vaccines. 4. Keep it inside to prevent your cat from kill any native wildlife. Just keep your cats indoor.
