Fox kills kitten in bedroom
A fox mauled an eight-week-old kitten to death in its owner's bedroom after sneaking through an open window.
Published: 1:50PM BST 26 Aug 2010
Leah Betts' pet kitten Reggie was killed by a fox Photo: ALAMY
Leah Betts, 23, described how she found the animal with her pet, Reggie, between its jaws. Before she could act, it had escaped out of the window, left slightly ajar. Miss Betts, from Folkestone, Kent said: "I was gobsmacked. "I won't leave my windows open at night now and it gets really stuffy, but I'm so paranoid. "To think it was brave enough to come in and stand on my bed like that - I couldn't believe it."
Miss Betts was with her toddler son, Blake, in the living room of their Folkestone home at around 10pm, when she heard a noise coming from her bedroom. She dashed upstairs, thinking it was her dog making the howling noise. But when she got to the landing she found him sniffing at her closed bedroom door. On opening it, she was confronted by the fox.
She said: "One of my kittens was standing on the bedside table, hissing, but the other was on my bed and so was the fox. "It was just standing there, looking at me and I backed out of the room because I was so shocked. "Then I went in again and saw the fox going back out through the window. The kitten was still alive but just lying there, limp."
The tiny kitten was still alive when the fox escaped but so seriously injured it had to be put down days later. Miss Betts added: "I think they should bring back fox hunting. "I'm just so glad I didn't have a new-born baby. Imagine if my son had been younger - he'd have been in there when the fox came in."
A spokesman for the RSPCA said there are an estimated 258,000 foxes in the UK at the end of every winter and that an extra 425,000 cubs are born each spring. In June, nine-month-old twins Lola and Isabella Koupparis, were mauled by an urban fox when they were sleeping in their cots at their home in Hackney, East London.
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