Ann, if you had coyotes before but don't seem to now, that would explain the fox moving into your territory. Coyotes and fox do not co-exist well...fox can be prey for a hungry coyote and so they (foxes) avoid establishing their runs through heavily populated coyote country. We have coyote in abundance here and so in all the years we've lived on this hill I have only seen one fox, and that one about a mile away. When we lived in the "middle of the mitt" we had no coyote but saw fox all the time. We had a large pond on our property and it seemed that two fox (they were slightly different shades of red, so easy to tell apart) had their runs overlapping at that pond's edge. I would sometimes see them at the same time come out of the woods on different sides of the pond, stop, stare at each other, mark and then disappear again back in the direction they had come from. I never had them come right up to the house, that I know of. We had rabbits there - many, many wild rabbits. And frogs. The fox never seemed to put a dent in the rabbit population and likewise they never seemed to bother our two indoor/outdoor cats, but then we had a male wolfhound, who although he wouldn't have hurt a fly was probably a deterrent just being there. Here in the north, we have *never* seen a rabbit - the coyotes wouldn't let one escape, I'm sure. Likewise, we have lost quite a few cats over the years - mainly those years in between dogs. Nothing like a large dog to remind the coyotes to keep their distance. After our Lab died, I suddenly noticed coyotes crossing the fields quite close to our yard. Once we adopted our Giant Schnauzer, they suddenly seemed to remember their place and returned to their old paths way up on top of the hill out back - which I'm sure made our 5 cats breathe easier! I think all in all, I would much rather have fox in residence in my area than raccoons or possums!

I usually don't say stuff is cute, but that fox is cute!

Sub-Detroit the fox squirrels are being pushed out by the black phase gray squirrels. I noticed that during the very cold part of winter the Fox squirrels are not as active as the gray squirrels. Mostley maple trees in my yard but I do have a Paw-Paw tree that is just getting gentiried and produces fruit prolificly and the Black-phase Gray squirrels hav discoverd the fruit and really is a bummer I didn't get one fruit to eat last fall.

"OP said picture was taken in the Florida panhandle...Navarre." Yes, they did. But that photo wasn't taken in Florida. The vegetation in the background isn't right and this species of fox doesn't occur anywhere near Florida. Everything about that animal looks like a Swift Fox (Vulpes macrotis) to me although the hair is a bit short. But the size of the ears, color, shape of the body, etc. all look like macrotis to me. And the habitat in the background further supports this ID....assuming it was shot in North America? I've seen a lot of photos on the internet with the wrong location listed. The Cross Fox (and all the other color patterns of Red Fox) have a heavier muzzle and smaller ears.