No wolves (fortunately) or coyotes (yet), but the fox seems to have made an abiding home in the backyard. When I got home from zazen this morning, he was back by the shed again.

Eliot the cat is very, very interested in watching this interloper, and stares outside anytime the fox is visible. In fact, I usually can tell when the fox is outside by observing the cat. Understandably, when the fox is around, Eliot doesn't plead to go out like he does when he sees a chipmunk, squirrel, or another cat. He just stares outside in rapt attention.

Later, the fox took a little stroll around the house, casually walking along the edge of the retaining wall. Eliot and I stalked him from room to room, following his progress.

So is Eliot in any danger from our new neighbor? My knowledge of foxes and fox behavior is pretty much limited to what I learned watching The Fantastic Mr. Fox, so I did a little research on the internet. Stories of foxes eating house cats are generally dismissed as urban myths (although coyotes will definitely eat cats) , and a search of videos on YouTube shows numerous encounters among foxes and house cats, with the cats either victorious or at the very least holding their own, or the two animals studiously avoiding each other. I learned that although foxes are capable of attacking and even killing cats on occasion, those occasions are rare. A study in England questioned more than 5,000 householders about the number of pet cats killed by foxes each year, and determined that on average an adult fox kills about 0.17 cats each year. To put it another way, any given fox would kill one cat every six years, and most of those were cats less than six months old. In fact, fox cubs are sometimes killed by domestic cats.

One night several weeks ago, I was calling Eliot in for dinner, when I heard the unmistakable sounds of a catfight. I walked down the street to investigate, and thought that I saw some larger animal retreat into the woods in the corner of my eye. It was twilight and getting dark, though, so I couldn't tell for sure. When I finally found Eliot, he was sitting down inside a storm gutter, only his head visible above street level in the little box, almost like Pennywise the Clown in that Steven King novel, and wouldn't come out. I had to get down on my knees to lift him out by the scruff of his neck and then carry him home. I wonder now if that wasn't his first close encounter with a fox.

Eliot still has all his claws and is in good shape, and so should be able to defend himself if needed. The yard is his home territory, and he knows all the safe spots and secret retreats in which to hide, if necessary. Tomorrow, he gets his rabies shot, which should be fun (taking him to the vet is always an ordeal, and if he puts up half the resistance to a fox attack that he usually puts into avoiding being placed into the cat carrier, he should be fine). And finally, I try not to leave food outside that might lure the fox into a close encounter with my pet.

So no fear: Eliot is outside now as I type, hopefully not getting into any altercations with wildlife. I will keep my ears open, though, for any sounds of struggle.