While government officials inside Number 10 may have been working out how to deal with international predators, outside the mog—who holds an official government position as “chief mouser to the Cabinet Office”—was squaring up to one himself.
The 15-year-old tabby, who has worked for four prime ministers after being appointed to the position in 2011, went viral after a Sky News camera crew caught the incident on film and shared it on Twitter.
Larry’s unofficial Twitter account then retweeted the footage late on Monday night, which was viewed almost 3 million times and shared more than 6,000 times by Tuesday lunchtime, with the catty caption: “Fox off.”
The fox tried to appear nonchalant as it walked down the street, with an annoyed Larry following closely behind. Glancing back nervously, the fox decided to head into some bushes, where it seemed to think it would be safe. But Larry stalked the animal and then ran to pounce, with the fox letting out a frightened bark as it ran away. Larry then stood watching as the fox dashed down Downing Street, even appearing to shake his head at the canine’s audacity.
The incident sparked some amusement on Twitter. One wrote: “Brave, but this cat has seen [former PM] Boris [Johnson] eat ice cream in his underwear at 2 a.m. This cat fears nothing after that ordeal.” Another joked: “The lefties will have Larry apologising by the end of the week and on a diversity course next week.”
But some tweeters were concerned about the fox’s welfare, while others claimed Larry could have been hurt and should be kept indoors. And some American Twitter users worried that Larry could have caught rabies had the fox fought back, but the disease has been kept out of the U.K. and does not circulate in wild animal populations.
Urban foxes are a common sight in London, and the London Wildlife Trust estimates there are around 10,000 in the city. In 2011, as the Shard was being built, a fox was discovered living on the 72nd floor on the London landmark. He was living on food scraps left by the construction workers.
The animals are part of the canine family. While rural red foxes’ diets consist of 95 percent meat, their urban cousins only manage about 50 percent meat, according to a report by the Natural History Museum. The other half of their diets comes from food waste in the garbage thrown out by restaurants and homeowners. In cities, foxes will sometimes hunt for food, killing birds or rats, but they usually choose to scavenge instead.
Larry’s brush with the fox is not the first time he’s shown aggression. He was involved in a series of catfights with the Foreign Office’s own chief mouser, Palmerston, who retired in 2020.
He can be catty with his famous bosses too; Larry’s unofficial Twitter account often posts caustic comments on the governments he is supposed to serve. Referencing the fox footage, he told the Sky News Twitter account: “Someone at this address is up to the job…” Tweeting about the British PM on Sunday, he wrote: “Liz Truss has asked me why I’m more popular than she is. I pointed out that wasps are more popular than she is.”
