Fox-Cat

by Jen
(Cobourg, Ontario, Canada)

On august 14th, 2010 my brother, sister in law and I saw what we thought (at first) were 2 young foxes.

We had just dropped my mom's friend off at her home and it was about 10:00 pm in a relatively new subdivision in Cobourg.

We saw the two animals playing in someone's yard, so we stopped the car to watch them, and that was when we realized they didn't really look as much like foxes as we thought!

They had cat-like tails (rounded tip) and cat-like faces, and the ears were large, but round, and they had smooth coats of fur.

They seemed to be obviously young and were playing together, and they were about the size of full-grown foxes.

They did have black tear-streaks on their faces which foxes do have. We tried to get pictures but cell phone cameras don't work very well in the dark!

We crept up closer in the car until they ran away.

The three of us were pretty sure what we had seen were cats, but googling for the past months since it has happened hasn't provided any info of what we may have seen.

Because we thought they were cats, we immediately thought Lynx or Cougar, but they definately weren't Lynx and they didn't look much like Cougars either (colour & texture of fur & tail was right - but bigger ears and longer legs).

I still wonder what I saw. I know they weren't foxes, we got really close to them, but I have reduced myself to saying "they were probably foxes" when talking about it because everyone rolls their eyes when I try to say that I think I saw something else.

A few weeks after we saw them, I was flipping through the paper with my husband and someone had submitted a picture of an animal that they saw in Madoc that they were unable to identify. It looked like what we saw, but bigger.

The picture-taker described it as being bigger than a fox with short hair and a cat-like face, so I contacted the paper and wrote to them to say I had seen a similar animal in Cobourg but didn't hear back.

I would have liked to get in touch with the person who took the picture!

Thanks for your report, Jen, I wonder what the mystery animal was? If anyone reading this has seen this animal or knows what it could be, please write and let us know!

Comments for Fox-Cat

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Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Grey Fox
by: Anonymous

I saw something like this today. The closest I could find online to what I saw was a grey fox. Apparently they can climb trees. I got a picture of it but it was too far away to see clearly. I thought it was a cat but it ran like a fox and had a long tail. I've seen bobcats before, it definitely wasn't a bobcat.
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Re: Fox-Cat
by: D.

I completely agree that by the description you gave it sounds like a Bobcat to me also ... I have seen a Bobcat before in the wild and your description matches what I saw ... I hope this helps.
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Fisher sighting
by: Anonymous

Description sounds like a Fisher (of the weasel family).
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Seen something similar in Norwood, Ontario
by: Anonymous

Tonight an animal ran across the road between the cemetary and the pond at almost dusk,

It was really, really fast and weird looking, short hair, thin, maybe the size of a fox, but not a fox.

The head almost looked like one of those Egyptian dogs, it was like no animal I have ever seen and I can't find anything like it on the internet.

Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		A similar sighting
by: roseann

I have just seen something similar in my backyard today (10:30am) May 24,2011.

I called Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) and was told to call the Guelph branch as they are the closest to Brantford.

The large cat-like creature (it was far too big to be a domesticated cat) went loping across the rear of my yard, leaped to the top of my 6ft fence and dropped to the other side where we have a forest left by the developers of our new subdivision.

It was between 24-36 inches long, stood approximtely 18 inches from the ground, and the face and body were just like a lynx.

I was sure that's what this was, until I saw a picture of a lynx's tail as the animal I saw had a bushy fox-like tail, and he had a tawny yellowish coat, with dark undermarking and the tail had a blackish end on it.

As I said, it moved too fast for me to grab a camera, and most interesting was the animal it was carrying in his jaw. It was hanging over either side of his mouth and was at least the size of a rabbit, it was way too big to be a mouse or a bird.

I have just spent the last couple hours on the internet attempting to identify it and have been unable to so, I completely believe your story because I have seen something similar also.

I wonder what on earth this animal is! Any readers have an answer?
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Probably a Bobcat
by: Anonymous

It sounds like a Bobcat to me.

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