Duckling Death!!

Yesterday was a day of duckling tragedy. It is often the same unfortunately. There are so many natural predators when they are very young and the parents do not seem to be that good at looking after them although they obviously try. As we have been through the heart ache so many times before we always have a count up every time we see them. There is always a little flutter of the heart whenever the count is one short but it is always replaced with a feeling of joy and relief when the missing fluff ball turns up from underneath the hedge. Unfortunately yesterday we were not so lucky. The rest of the Old Fox residents,Joanna,Hannah,Brodie and Katherine went out for a walk with the Ancestors,or Grandparents as they probably prefer to be called, leaving me to tend to the fire that we had started earlier to get rid of some of the hedge trimmings that we had dumped in the back garden. About twenty minutes after the walking party had departed I decided to go and get the rake from the garage. I walked through the front garden, passing the ducklings on my way. "Roll Call" I called out to anyone that might be listening and proceeded to count them only to find that we were one short. Instinctively I wondered where our cat was and walked to the porch only to find the little so and so with the missing duckling under his paws. Sadly there was no life left in it so it has now been buried by the well. Even more sadly we have just been outside again and a further roll call has seen the total down to eight. This time the missing duckling was lying on the grass yellow side up next to the bird bath. The culprit this time cannot be immediately identified but,needless to say, the cat is under suspicion again. Unfortunately he is very old and cannot be trusted to be in the house on his own as he regularly leaves little stinking presents in every available corner. Now it seems he can't be trusted to be outside on his own otherwise we will end up with a duckling massacre on our hands. We are formulating a plan now. Death to the cat does seem to be a popular suggestion at the moment as emotions are still raw. We have lost many ducklings and moorhen chicks since we have lived here - the cat is currently being fingered for the lot! Before yesterday,when we all still loved him, his name was Stitch although everyone refers to him as Moochie. Currently he is simply referred to as the cat. You can insert your own expletive. Oh well hopefully we will hatch a cunning enough plan to keep cat and ducklings separated long enough to enable both to survive and live in peaceful harmony at The Old Fox.