A GRANDMOTHER had the shock of her life when she woke up in bed with a FOX sitting on her chest.
Magistrate Mary Small was terrified to find the creature on her duvet after she felt something clawing at her face on Sunday morning.
Thinking it was just a cat, the 68-year-old came too slowly only to see the feral fox inches from her face starring down at her inquisitively.
After screaming in terror and shooting from the covers in hysterics, the fox scampered while husband Tony grabbed his camera in instinct – rather than rushing to his wife’s aid.
Shaken Mary, who has a phobia of foxes, and her husband, finally managed to usher the 2ft long cub outside after 20 minutes, but only after Tony had got a clear snap of the creature sitting by a leather armchair in their upstairs study.
Mary said she was ‘terrified’ and ‘upset’ about the whole ordeal, which occurred at their Victorian property in Bournville, Birmingham over the weekend.
“I thought it was a cat at first when I felt it clawing at my face,” said Mary.
“But when I opened my eyes and saw this fox sitting on my chest, 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. It was like a giant fox.
“I just leapt from the covers, I’ve never moved so quickly.
“The scariest thing was it just appeared to be so fearless.”
She added: “Tony’s first instinct was to grab his camera rather than see if I was OK. He got a good picture though in our upstairs study.
“You can see him peeping out from behind the leather chair, he was a cheeky so and so.
“And even when we finally got him out of the house, he was pawing at the windows to come back in.
“They seem to have lost their fear of humans now, it is quite concerning.
“They carry diseases too so I had to disinfect the whole house afterwards, I was worried for the children next door.”
The fox had somehow crept into the couple’s kitchen, through their lounge and up the stairs at their home at around 6.15am on Sunday morning.
“He must have got in when Tony went outside for his pipe or the night before – we just don’t really know for sure,” added Mary.
“But he was very brave to come all the way through the house because it is quite a big place.
“It was very scary and I was pretty upset.
“After seeing the stories about people being bitten in London, I think I was quite lucky in the end.
“With recent urban developments around here there seems less green space for them to roam about in, so they seem to be getting braver and braver when it comes to interaction with humans.”
Retired Tony, 69, said: “Mary was terrified.
“She’s paranoid about foxes. It’s a good job she initially thought it was a cat.“
Not sure what to do, Tony, an amateur photographer, eventually managed to coax the cub downstairs and out of the front door of their house.
The couple, whose son Julian lives in Dubai with his three children, had discovered the fox last Sunday morning.
Tony said the animal, which returned to the house minutes after it was shooed away, was only about three-months-old.
He added: “I checked its sex because Mary was concerned it might have been a vixen and had given birth.
“We quite often get cats coming inside but not foxes.
“You just don’t expect to see foxes roaming around urban areas during the day.
“It really shook Mary.
“She instantly had a shower because she was worried about having caught any diseases.“
The RSPCA said foxes were mild-mannered and 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.“
