Grandmother with fox phobia wakes up to find cub sitting on her CHEST

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

Shock: Mrs Small on the bed where she came face to face with the intrepid fox

One moment she was fast asleep, the next she was awake with the realisation that an animal was sitting on her chest and clawing at her face.

Mary Small, 68, at first thought it was a visiting cat that had climbed on to her duvet.

But then she saw that the animal peering inquisitively down at her was a fox. The grandmother screamed and leapt from her bed.


Brazen: This picture was taken seconds after the fox leapt off Mary Small's bed. She had awoken with the creature clawing at her face


The intruder, a cub, fled and was eventually chased out of the house by her husband Tony.

The incident comes after a number of fox attacks and is just the latest example of how the animals are losing their fear of humans.

Last June, nine-month-old twins Lola and Isabella Koupparis were mauled in their cot in East London.

Shortly afterwards, Jake Jermy, three, was bitten on the arm at a playgroup party in Brighton and earlier this year an ambulance worker in Worthing, West Sussex told how a fox entered her house through the cat flap and bit off the end of her finger.


Terror: Mrs Small said she screamed and 'had never moved so fast' when she woke to find a fox in her room


Mrs Small, a magistrate, said yesterday: ‘I thought it was a cat at first when I felt it clawing at my face. But when I opened my eyes and saw this fox, I was pretty shaken up to say the least.

‘Obviously things look bigger when they are closer to you, so it looked enormous when I came around.

‘I just leapt from the covers and screamed, I’ve never moved so quickly. The scariest thing was it just appeared to be so fearless.’

Mrs Small said she had been terrified by the incident at their Victorian property in Bournville, Birmingham.


Intruder: The fox may have got into the house in Bournville, Birmingham when Mr Small went outside to smoke his pipe. The couple disinfected the whole house as they were worried about diseases from the animal


She added: ‘Tony’s first instinct was to grab his camera rather than see if I was OK. He got a good picture of the fox in our upstairs study.

‘You can see it peeping out from behind the leather chair, it was a cheeky so and so.

Even when we finally got it out of the house, it was pawing at the windows to come back in.





The RSPCA said fox attacks on humans were extremely rare.

A spokesman added: ‘Foxes are opportunists, searching for and defending areas with suitable food and shelter. They learn to trust people who are not causing them harm.’

source: dailymail