It happened again, if you can believe it!
Hubby heard cat's crying late evening yesterday, and thought a cat had been shut inside somewhere. He looked up and down in the house and then in the garage without finding the cat. He got a flashlight to look around the house, and was stared down by a very big fox on the back lawn! He said the fox was as big as a Collie. The fox didn't budge even when the flashlight was shone on his face. Again, the cat was up in the tree, crying. After shooing off the fox, hubby got up the tree on a ladder to rescue the cat. It was quite a struggle with the ladder, a flashlight, and the cat. It is a thorny Honey Locust tree. Hubby said he wasn't sure if the scratches on his hands and arms were from the tree or the cat.
That wasn't the end of the story because the neighbor's family is on vacation and there are two cats. Hubby found the second cat and kept both in the garage. Then he went to Safeway to buy cat litter so that the cats could use them inside the garage over night. The cats are always kept in the neighbor's garage at night, even in the middle of the winter, which is not what we would do. However, we are not sure of what type/frequency of flea treatment the cats receive and cannot bring them inside for fear of getting ticks on me. Lyme disease is the last thing I need at the moment, or the last thing anybody needs at any time.
Now we are really worried. It seems that our backyard has become the fox's hunting ground. The cats are outside all the time. They may not be so lucky next time...
As
@Muddy1 suggested, we must tell the neighbors when they come back.
