With us it is coyotes. They don't come inside the fence. Guard the garbage cans and don't let your pets out at night. We probably lost our cat to a coyote, though it could have been a bobcat.

If you don't have chickens it will probably be all right. Sometimes I think about getting chickens. (It does put a damper on travel, though, and I love to travel.) At least they don't eat roses.

Rosefolly

We don't have many foxes and my only problem with them has been that they dig for bone meal where I've just planted things like roses and tulips. I forgive them because they keep the deer population down by killing the young kids. Deer are our worst plague.

I wish I could help, but I only know of foxes second hand. Lorene, in Pittsburgh says they have foxes, and she believes that is the reason they have so few rabbits. She also has two wire haired terriers. I think they are probably more responsible for controlling the rabbits. My Splash does what she can to chase them away but she is not a ratter and herders are not known for killing other critters. They are more into protecting their herd.

Maybe you should acquire a ratter.
Good luck.

Barbara

The problem is that we aren't terrier types. Hyperactive and us are two different universes.

We have also had coyotes. They lived under the Jess House (in our back woods) and many, many summer nights they were loud along the river.
Locals say that the coyotes may be dieing of heartworm from the dog population.
This year we haven't heard them along the river, nor have I seen any crossing the fields after first hay cutting.

Thanks for the bonemeal warning...you may have saved a few roses with that one.

I'm visiting a friend in Idaho and there are four weaned fox kits that have just moved into the yard under some outbuildings. There are quite a few in the valley, and unless you are raising chickens, they are regarded as a good thing, as they normally live on small rodents. Here that means mice, voles, and ground squirrels. If you have a rabbit problem they would be a very good thing. When I lived in this valley some years ago there was a fox that came into my yard regularly. I had a Corgi who would valiantly try to chase him off and the fox would just torment him, staying out of reach. I watched my large male cat chase him too, I swear I am not kidding. I loved to watch him - to me they are very graceful and cat like. They are solitary rather than pack animals.

If they would hunt gophers and rats, I'd love to have foxes.

Coyotes we have. They've always sung at night in the hills above us.
A year or so ago, a pair came down and denned in our neighbor's derelict orchard.
Plenty of avocados to eat, and they supplemented that diet with small dogs and cats.

I won't soon forget finding the remains of such a meal in the rose garden.
But the scary bit was when they were howling right outside my bedroom window.
They're bold!
I see no evidence that they eat rats or gophers.

They're native critters here, and I have a great deal of sympathy for them.
We, after all, are intruding in THEIR ancient home.
Foxes are not natives, but were long ago introduced to CA by some fools who wanted to hunt them.
Our neighbor saw one, sitting right next to our motorhome, but I never have.

As has been said: Garbage securely covered. NO pet food ever left out at night.
Pets must be brought in at night -- even dogs of some size can lose out to a pack of coyotes.

Jeri

We have red foxes here, and they aren't a problem. They eat moles, mice, bunnies, etc..but they are oportunists..they will eat whatever they can find.unlike coy dogs and coyotes..fox do not hunt in groups, or packs, they are solitary animals except when they are with a litter of pups. After the farmers cut a hay field, it's not unusual to see them out there getting field mice, or whatever they get ..but here, anyway,it's unusual to see them out in the open other than after the hay is cut...they are usually wary of people, sometimes they will sneak around at night..but i have never heard of them going after a dog, if that's what worries you. when i first moved here, i asked an old farmer next door about them..and he gave me some very sound advice..he said.. "foxes are territorial, so if they aren't bothering you, leave them be..because if you get rid of foxes that aren't bothering you, you then leave the door open for the ones that might"..21 years here, and i've never had a problem with them.over the years i have had everything from ducks to sheep, so if they are just on your perimeter..i think it's fine. Donna

Just about anything that would go after gophers and ground squirrels would be welcome. My husband saw a large gopher snake in the yard the other day. I don't like snakes much so I'm glad it wasn't me who saw it, particularly since gopher snakes closely resemble rattlers. I would have suffered a most unpleasant adrenaline surge. But knowing that the snake and the owls are after the gophers is good. We would have many more of them without these predators, which is why we trap rather than poison.

Our back garden looks like swiss cheese, simply full of holes. Everything is planted in wire cages. I hate those rodents with all my heart.

We adore our Freya but I'm thinking my next dog may be a terrier of some sort. Freya is interested in the gophers (and had caught a couple over the years) but she just isn't up to the task.

Rosefolly

We have gray foxes. Their presence is undetectable except when they come out of the woods in late afternoon sometimes.

Celebrate! The babies are just as cute as can be and the adults will ensure that you never see a woodchuck.

Also, just because you have a family this year doesn't mean you have permanent houseguests. Next year they may not return.

I've had red and gray foxes on my property for years. They make a funky yapping sound when they're talking to one another. Some people might be bothered by this in the middle of the night, but I considered it one of the blessings of rural life. They're really not large enough to try for the cat (unlike coyotes, which will kill the occasional slow-moving housecat) and I've never heard anyone say a fox has messed with their dog. I did see one run off with a neighbor's chicken once, but raccoons probably do more chicken damage than fox.

Drive carefully at night, because they aren't as shy of cars as they ought to be, especially the teenagers.

I have 3 red foxes that visit my yard regularly. I think they all must be from the same den. They're really some of nature's most beautiful animals with those great big bushy tails. When I first moved here, I would see an ocassional snake, but the foxes have eaten them all. I trap squirrels
that get into my roses, and I lay them out for the foxes, and by the morning their gone. I think we've come to a natural understanding, as long as I feed them squirrels they let me use fish emulsion on my roses without trying to dig them up.

My good friend raised 2 orphaned foxes. I thought they were better pets than most dogs I've known. Quiet, graceful and super smart. I wish I could have a neighborhood of foxes over most of these loud, barking dogs any day.

I hate the sound of foxes calling to each other, they sound like little girls screaming. We've never had much of a problem around here. We have bunnies, but I don't see them too too often. There have been less animals around since they turned the golf course behind our house into a new neighborhood.

Foxes are good, it's bad to see an unhealthy one, but the thing about small pets is true. Keep your cats in at night. We had this old orange cat that showed up around our house a few summers ago, sweet thing, after I gave him fried chicken that is. Kooky cat, liked to ride in the car actually. Was already fixed, so he had been someone's before. He lived with us through the winter in our garage, tried to keep him in our house but our two cats were extremely hostile to him, so he lived in our garage again. Around autumn of the second year of having him he vanished, I keep hoping that he went back to his original home, having tired of us, but the idea of a fox catching him has never left my head. So in other words, be respectful, but weary, much like they act with us.

young/old animals should most certainly come in at night.

Ann, if you had coyotes before but don't seem to now, that would explain the fox moving into your territory. Coyotes and fox do not co-exist well...fox can be prey for a hungry coyote and so they (foxes) avoid establishing their runs through heavily populated coyote country. We have coyote in abundance here and so in all the years we've lived on this hill I have only seen one fox, and that one about a mile away. When we lived in the "middle of the mitt" we had no coyote but saw fox all the time. We had a large pond on our property and it seemed that two fox (they were slightly different shades of red, so easy to tell apart) had their runs overlapping at that pond's edge. I would sometimes see them at the same time come out of the woods on different sides of the pond, stop, stare at each other, mark and then disappear again back in the direction they had come from. I never had them come right up to the house, that I know of. We had rabbits there - many, many wild rabbits. And frogs. The fox never seemed to put a dent in the rabbit population and likewise they never seemed to bother our two indoor/outdoor cats, but then we had a male wolfhound, who although he wouldn't have hurt a fly was probably a deterrent just being there.
Here in the north, we have *never* seen a rabbit - the coyotes wouldn't let one escape, I'm sure. Likewise, we have lost quite a few cats over the years - mainly those years in between dogs. Nothing like a large dog to remind the coyotes to keep their distance. After our Lab died, I suddenly noticed coyotes crossing the fields quite close to our yard. Once we adopted our Giant Schnauzer, they suddenly seemed to remember their place and returned to their old paths way up on top of the hill out back - which I'm sure made our 5 cats breathe easier!

I think all in all, I would much rather have fox in residence in my area than raccoons or possums!

If you live with a large fox population you can help them by making sure they have food in lean times and are wormed regularly -- mixing Ivermectin with a treat at consistent intervals. My understanding is that this kills worms and mange (average life for a fox with mange is about 2-3 months).

You can google the topic or talk to your vet or wildlife rescue groups about the recommended dosages and intervals.

Foxhunters I know (they do not kill the foxes) always take care of their fox populations this way. They also know the fox families and where their dens are and periodically walk the land, checking on their health.

Oath,
I owe you big time. For the description of fox sounds. Last night, they were close. And turning the flood lights on didn't stop their vocalizing. The formerly great hunting beast cat was totally agitated by their chatter. I don't remember hearing it before.
I hope they got the rabbit I almost stepped on yesterday in the tea bed.
And deer are hanging out at the base of the hill in a walnut grove. There's at least one fawn in that herd.
And the dog snores on.

Yes, oath, you're right, that's just what they sound like. We periodically hear the foxes screaming in the glen below the horse pasture. An eerie sound that noone likes, the big dogs patrol the fencelines and roar when they hear them. They stay out of the yard because of the 2 mastiffs.

Rabbits hide under the juniper bushes and the young mastiff is diligent about hunting them since I haven't seen any in the garden this year. At twilight the deer come out in the pastures and the young mastiff would like to chase them too. We have her voice trained not to, since she can clear a horse fence if so inclined (I caught her practicing, trying out various ways of jumping the fence, and stopped her before she went over...)

Ann, how do you keep the deer from munching on the roses? Today while I was in the garden, around noon, a doe came running through the yard! She gracefully sailed over the fence and continued on her way. My dog looked on in shock! The deer are relentless.