Sleeping Leon Smith rolled over in bed to cuddle his girlfriend – and found himself holding a FOX.
The IT consultant, 30, who works from home, was dozing in bed when he felt something walking up his BACK and nuzzle into his NECK.
Thinking it was his cat Bramble, he pushed the creature off him and rolled over to give his partner Sophie Merrell, 28, a morning cuddle.
But instead of his gorgeous girl he felt coarse, dirty hair.
He opened his eyes and was stunned to see he had grabbed hold of a FOX.
Terrified Leon froze as the beast stood on top of his duvet just stared at him.
But when the animal refused to move he bravely reached for his phone and snapped a picture.
The animal then jumped down off the bed and stood in the doorway – barricading Leon in his room for almost TEN MINUTES.
Leon only managed to chase away fox by repeatedly shouting and charging towards it.
He said: “I just thought it was the cat, so I thought nothing of it.
“It had walked up my back and was licking my neck for a good couple of seconds.
“I pushed him off and rolled over for a cuddle, forgetting Sophie was already at work.
“When I touched what I thought was the cat, it was all rough and not like Bramble at all.
“I thought the cat might have been out all night and got stuff on it.
“But it was a fox. I couldn’t believe it.
“It was so calm. It just stared at me.
“Then it went to the end of the bed and that’s when I grabbed my phone to take the picture.
“It went to the door and just sat in the doorway, still staring. It trapped me.”
Since the bizarre confrontation at 8.30am, on August 7, nervy Sophie says she is too scared to be in their home alone.
The couple believe the plucky creature squeezed into their two bedroom flat in Hampton Hill, Middlesex, through the cat flap.
Incredibly the animal found its way up two flights of stairs to the second floor apartment before sneaking in.
They said it would have walked straight past the kitchen and so wasn’t looking for food.
Instead Leon and Sophie fear the urban fox lives in local woodland and was preying on Bramble – and could return.
Sophie, an operations manager, said: “When I saw the fox I thought it was hilarious at first.
“I thought – ‘well serves you right for laying in bed.’
“But then I put the picture on Facebook and a lot of my friends said they would have been terrified.
“If it had got into bed with me, I don’t know what I would have done – maybe hide under the covers and scream and cry.
She added: “I’m really scared now that it will come back, I’m really jumpy.
“I am really paranoid when I am alone in the house that it will come and get me.
“I’m scared – we don’t really know what to do.”
The couple are now considering removing the cat flap they had only had few six weeks before the break-in.
A spokeswoman from the RSPCA said: “Foxes by nature will tend to avoid human contact and incidents such as these are rare.
“We would encourage people to use humane deterrents to discourage foxes from their gardens – the most effective of which is removing or preventing access to what attracts them – for example food.”
