In elementary school, I was incredibly upset to be the only kid in the class without a pet, so I immediately made up a story about having a "dwarf fox" at home (I didn't have a clue what it might actually be, but it sounded cool). I was the star for a few weeks, but then, before an upcoming birthday party with guests, the fox reportedly passed away…
The only thing I didn't take into account was that I forgot to warn my parents about this "pet," so the other parents' outbursts of grief caught them off guard. There are two morals to this story: always plan your lies carefully, and having any fox at home could bring you trouble. Unfortunately, the husband of the user SpottedDeer, the narrator of our story today, is apparently unaware of my wise fox warning.
More info: Mumsnet
Telling outright lies to your spouse is definitely wrong, and trying to keep a wild animal at home as a pet is probably even more wrong
Image credits: EyeEm / Freepik (not the actual photo)
The author of the post and her husband have 2 cats, and recently, the man told her he wanted to put a cat flap in the front door for them
Image credits: SpottedDeer
Image credits: EyeEm / Freepik (not the actual photo)
The woman, however, suspected that this was being made mostly not for the cats but for the foxes
Image credits: SpottedDeer
Image credits: ganzevayna1 / Freepik (not the actual photo)
She saw the husband hand-feeding the foxes several times and found out he's really obsessed with them
Image credits: SpottedDeer
Image credits: Timur Weber / Pexels (not the actual photo)
After being cornered, the man admitted that he wanted to make a pet of a wild fox - like his favorite YouTuber allegedly did
Image credits: SpottedDeer
The woman is anyway deeply concerned with this idée fixe and decided to vent online, seeking advice and support
So, the Original Poster (OP) and her husband have been married for many years, and she describes him as nearly the sweetest, kindest, and greatest man ever - but a recent incident has really worried her. The couple has two cats, and they usually come out when the owners open the door for them - but recently, the husband has been obsessed with the idea of putting in a cat flap.
He says it's more convenient for both cats and humans, but our heroine suspects the problem isn't the cats, but the foxes. She's seen her husband hand-feeding the foxes several times, and even trying to pet some, so she thinks he just wants to try to domesticate a fox. The man, of course, hadn't considered how a wild animal would behave in the house...
The guy turned out to be truly obsessed with foxes and this very idea - he'd watched a series of YouTube videos by a blogger talking about how he had a fox living at home. The wife's objections that the fox probably wasn't taken straight from the wild but was rather a cub from a breeding facility had no effect. The obsession remained.
So, the woman decided to take it online, seeking support and advice. She wondered how safe it actually was to keep a fox at home, how cats and foxes could get along... And besides, was there any way to convince her husband, who was so obsessed with this strange idea, to change his mind?
Image credits: freepik / Freepik (not the actual photo)
Well, perhaps the law could be an argument for our heroine - at least only 15 states in the US even allow having a fox as a pet. As for the UK, regulations state that only captive-bred animals can be legally kept. So the OP is probably completely right about the blogger whose videos her husband is so fond of.
Furthermore, many experts generally advise against hand-feeding or petting foxes - it turns out that doing so unwittingly exposes them to mortal danger. "When you hand-feed a fox, you train them to associate a human hand with food," Fox Guardians quotes Professor Dawn Scott, the UK's leading fox expert.
After all, by doing so, we essentially teach the animal that humans can give them food - and some people, upon seeing a fox running toward them, may become aggressive out of fear, even taking up arms. This is especially true considering that some foxes can carry rabies, and people are understandably wary of contact.
And in general, the author's husband's desire seems a bit selfish. “You don’t just reach out and grab someone because you can or because they are smaller than you,” biologist Catherine Raven says in her book “Fox & I.” Perhaps the original poster should give this book to her husband to read? So what do you, our readers, think about all this?
Turns out keeping wild foxes as pets is illegal in many states, and overall, even hand-feeding them could be really dangerous for the animals - and most commenters agreed with this completely
