Well after sunset yesterday I was pulling weeds out of a garden bed in my backyard here in Cedar Park. As I took a break I looked up and saw our 5-year old Schnauzer mix staring out past our back fence into the greenbelt/preserve land that runs behind our back yard. I looked out and aided by last nights full moon I saw the silhouette of a canine sitting on his haunches looking into my yard about 35 yards out. My first thought was that it was a coyote. I retreated into the house and grabbed a pair of binoculars from my living room. The canine remained sitting on its haunches looking into the yard. I was able to look for a few seconds before it got up and moved towards the brush. As it got up, I saw a bushy tail come up. Today I'm thinking it could have been a grey fox (we've seen a couple of them in our neighborhood at night while driving).

Does this seem like the behavior of a grey fox? It seemed mostly curious staring into our yard. I'm not too familiar with foxes; would a grey fox be brazen enough to go after a 12 pound schnauzer?
TIA

I had a 15# fox think long and hard about coming into my tree stand this year. I was in a persimmon tree and he really wanted some persimmons.

I'd say if a 190# dude with a bow taking pictures of him with a cell phone didn't scare him off, a 12# schnauzer wouldn't either.

But I'm just guessing. I bet it's not the first time said fox has seen your schnauzer before. Maybe he's used to him?

They are a very curious species. They are known to get borderline buddy buddy with dogs of similar size and larger. My main concern would be to make sure your dog's rabies vaccine is up to date.

If they're brazen enough to s#!t on my cool deck just outside my living room windows multiple times a week, I'm sure they're brazen enough to watch you and your dog from afar.

If you're asking if that fox will eat your dog, I would highly doubt it.

We had a deal in Arlington where a grey fox and a lab became pretty good buddies. Took awhile to figure out, but they were passing all sorts of crap back and forth to each other through the fence.

We have had the same exact thing OP described. Working in the yard.... you feel like you are being watched..... there it is 50 to 100 yards away, sitting on the county road watching us.

We have lost three cats in the past ten years, but that could have been many things. I am guessing Mr. or Mrs Fox would kill a cat, don't know.

Foxes are chill and very curious. They will hang out very close to dogs and people and they will definitely eat a cat. They're okay in my book.

My wife's daschund was possibly (likely) eaten by foxes. This was back in bad drought when there were multiple foxes hungry for something to eat.

If you have a full size schnauzer, no problem. If it's a little one, I wouldn't leave it outside alone.

Quote:

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Took awhile to figure out, but they were passing all sorts of crap back and forth to each other through the fence.

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Dog: "Psst. The coast is clear".
Fox: "You got the goods?"
Dog: "Yeah. Kong ball loaded with Peanut Butter. You got my stuff?"
Fox: "One baby cottontail, still warm. Just like we agreed."
Dog: "Word"
Fox: "If anyone asks were you got this from, I don't know you"

Pretty close. The main thing was sticks. There were no trees in or near the backyard, yet the lab kept coming up with sticks to play with. They also liked passing non-food trash back and forth.

Thanks for the replies. I'm thinking of setting up a camera to see just how often he/she comes around...

Have a lease out in Mason that is loaded up with grey foxes. We call in 5-7 a night at various place around the ranch. Very curios little guys. I almost always have them run within 10-15 feet of the buggy. They typically aren't a threat to pet's unless you have cats or small dogs.

Please tell me there is video

Grey foxes are small. Don't think they'd be an issue for most dogs or cats. There was one which would sit outside my office and eat bird seed we'd placed out for the birds when I was in Austin.

My neighbor in Portland,TX leaves cat food out for a few grey foxes. We were close to Sunset Lake (a park type nature preserve deal). The foxes don't care about much & don't act scared unless something chases them.

Well this possibly answers another reason why he/she is hanging around our yard. We hung a bird feeder within the past week that was subsequently flipped by a squirrel...bird seed all over the ground.

Pretty much everything will eat bird seed. Deer, raccoons, opossums, fox... Hell, even birds.

We caught one in trap a couple of weeks ago. The little dude had a pretty ferocious growl, not what I thought he would say, at all!

This thread reminds me of a job I had several years ago being the "nature guy" at a camp for chronically ill & handicapped kids. I always got to the place at or before daylight to enjoy the peace at sunrise before anyone else arrived. One of my first duties was to fill my bird feeders at two different feeding stations I had set up.

One day as I was tooling down the trail in a golf cart, a grey fox was sitting next to the trail just watching. I eased past & he just watched me go by from about six feet. They were commonly seen & usually had babies each Spring under one of the storage sheds or gazebo so I didn't think much about him being there. The kids (& adults) liked seeing the babies each spring.

But then things got unique. He started trotting along behind me all the way to the feeder station. He just watched as I filled the seed feeders and as I was getting back on the cart, he promptly went beneath a feeder looking for spilled seeds. As I watched this, I decided to place a cup or so of black oil sunflower seeds on a picnic table sitting near the feeders. He watched me do this & as I walked away, this guy hopped right onto the table & chowed down. He loved SF seeds.

This was a daily ritual for the two of us for about two weeks. I got some really cool photos of him from about 10-15 feet during that time. I just acted normal during my routine & he would wait patiently until I placed his sunflower seeds on "his" table while he watched.

What was funny is that one day I deviated from my routine and had to check on something in a building near the station before filling the feeders. That rascal had followed me to the door of the building and was looking through the window at me as if to be saying, "HEY!!! What's going on. I'm hungry out here." I literally had to laugh out loud & told him I was sorry but his sunflower seeds would be next. That guy had quite a personality.

After that, I guess things got better on the wild side of the menu & I would only catch him at the table when I placed a trail camera at the feeders.

There's no telling how long he had been observing my routine before I noticed him. I can only figure he'd been watching me for weeks or longer before being brazen enough to show himself in such an obvious fashion. This is why I'd much rather hang out with four-legged animals than most two-legged animal I know. Nature, ain't it great.

I have had a real soft spot for foxes ever since I got to play with a couple of young ones when I was in high school. (Insert dirty thoughts here). My sister worked as the education director for a zoo and had a couple of tame foxes they were raising to use as education animals. She brought them home a few times when she came to visit, and it was a blast playing with them and watching them hunt toys hidden under newspaper or a blanket. They used their ears as much as their eyes to figure out where it was moving, then would leap way up in the air and land with both paws right on it and then start digging furiously. My sister said it was how they would hurt mice under grass in the wild.

We had a few foxes hanging around our bird feeder last month in Colorado. The dark one is called a Cross Fox according to the locals. They were not afraid of my lab who was sitting on the other side of the sliding glass windows looking at them.
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Very cool. A Cross fox is simply a partially melanistic red fox. They are somewhat common up north, but decrease in numbers as you head south through the mountains.

Well, since we've moved from grey foxes to red foxes I've got some interesting videos of a red fox scavenging a pig carcass and even video clips of him making repeated trips from the gut pile to cache the "extra" for later consumption. The problem is I don't know how (or really care to learn) to post pics or vids on Texags. They are posted on my Facebook page (Bassariscus Astutus) if anyone wants to look at them and/or post them here. There are several OB posters that regularly see my FB videos which are 100% game cam clips from my place. I'm really not that into social media but I just post to share cool animal encounters that I think are post worthy.

You will have to scroll back to Jan 4 posting date when the fox scavenging first started and then the caching clips were posted on Jan 15. Too bad they are all at night in IR so they are black & white but still interesting to watch. I had the camera on the carcass for about a month & have other interesting scavengers visiting

b.astutus gets some really cool game camera videos. A couple have ended up being featured on TPWD' FB page.

Bumping this old thread. Heard a barking/crying sound in the backyard at 4am and got up to investigate. I looked through the blinds and saw this guy just chillin' on our patio bench.

I would increase your phone screen back lighting to get a good view. Sorry for vertical screen...I was half asleep.