A fox broke into my home and attacked my baby girl

A horrified mother has revealed how a fox crept into her home and bit her three-month-old baby daughter's head while the pair were sleeping. Carly Clarkson had nodded off while feeding little Josephine only to be startled awake by the animal sniffing her face - before spotting blood around her baby lying next to her.

Mum-of-two Carly, 37, screamed and then realised the full horror as she saw four, bloody puncture wounds on her baby's head. She grabbed Josephine and chased the fox to the top of the stairs, before rushing to her one-year-old daughter's room to check she was safe. Carly, who had left the back door to their home in Watford, Hertfordshire, open, said: "Imagine waking up, and your child's blood is next to you. It was absolutely horrifying."

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She said the four puncture wounds on Josephine's head "looked like a dog had bitten a football".

She rushed to Watford General Hospital at around 9.45pm on Thursday (August 20) where it was confirmed there were no fractures to Josephine's skull or concerns around the baby's brain.

Carly says it may only have been due to the position they had fallen asleep in that the wounds were not to the face or an artery in the leg.

She suggested the fox may have been attempting to drag her daughter away with it.

Now, Carly has been left frightened to use her garden or leave doors open with her daughters nearby.

She added: "I feel absolutely violated. I don't feel safe in my home with two young children.

"Clearly there is an issue of either the same fox or multiple foxes being fed or just really acclimatising and becoming comfortable with people."

Even as they departed to take their daughter to hospital, Carly and her husband encountered a fox - which may have been the same animal - approaching them directly at the front door and apparently attempting to enter.

CCTV footage from the garden shows what they believe to be the animal prowling around moments before it gained entry.

They reported the incident to Watford Borough Council and looked into what could be arranged privately, but the only solution on offer were £300 pellets which might deter foxes.

Carly claims the brazen foxes in the area are becoming "out of control", and has reached out to The Fox Project for assistance.

She said: "I was very lucky that we came away with just needing some tetanus shots and some antibiotics.

"I would hate to find out that in a week or in a few weeks' time someone else isn't so lucky."

Trevor Williams, founder of The Fox Project, maintains that such incidents are exceptionally rare and that there hasn't been one in over a decade.

He said: "It's pretty clear to me that this incident involves a young cub.

"Experienced adult foxes would never behave in this way and will always avoid putting themselves in such a vulnerable position.

"We're at the point of the year when annual dispersal is taking place and this year's fox families are breaking up - cubs being around four and a half months.

"For most, their natural instincts kick in quickly, and they will avoid immediate human proximity.

"But there will always be a few who find themselves wandering through open doors into homes or businesses as they investigate unfamiliar territory.

"If undisturbed, as this particular cub appears to have been, their natural curiosity will oblige them to check out everything at leisure and, in this case, it looks as if it's tested out its sharp young canines on the tender skin of a baby.

"As alarming as this must have been for the baby's mother and, thankfully, resulting in only superficial injury, incidents involving foxes are so rare that the last time we heard of anything similar was somewhere around 2010 / 2012."

The charity's founder advised that keeping doors shut and using non-toxic repellents are the best ways to protect yourself from unwanted fox encounters.

He added: "Obviously, taking care to keep doors closed, despite the extreme weather, is a basic precaution.

"But anyone concerned about foxes regularly sharing their environment can reduce activity and discourage them very easily by use of safe, non-toxic mammal repellents easily acquired from garden centres and hardware stores."