Pretty sure foxes are sneakers and not generally good in confrontations, especially in others territory.

Basically what I think is happening here is that the fox knows it’s “trespassing” on another animals territory. This might be caused by the cat peeing on the property tons of places.

The cat knows this and defends it’s territory.

This has happened with my dog a couple times.

A huge golden retriever was being walked in front and I didn’t have killer on a leash.

She’s only a cow herding dog, so she just sort of circled the dog to keep it in place.

Then there was the time I was walking her.

Some big ass rottweiler came out of the yard and barked at her and she put her head down. Nothing happened though.

Anybody got links/wiki on this subject?