Foxy Lady gets Fish

I always find it difficult to decide what to do when I find one of my fish looking very ill and at death's door. Do I leave it in the pond and risk infecting the others if it has something catching or do I take it out and bang it on the head to save it suffering or do I take it out and put it somewhere else where it can die peacefully on its own?

Yesterday I found one of my fish looking in a very bad way so I thought I would put it out of its misery but when I went to pick it up it swam away so I decided to put it in a bucket with pond weed and Lilly Pads to shelter it and wait to see if it would improve.

In the evening I checked on it on route to fill up the bird feeders and it wasn't looking too good and by the time I returned from the feeders it appeared to have died but I thought I would leave it in the bucket overnight as I didn't want to disturb it if there was still a bit of life left.

Next morning I got up at 5.30 am to find the bucket on its side and the weed strewn across the garden. I went out to look for the fish but couldn't find it anywhere and then 5 minutes later female fox came into the garden and went straight to an area under some trees where she dragged out my fish and proceeded to eat it.

I am always amazed at how good a fox's sense of smell is; the bucket with the fish in it had been well tucked away but Foxy still managed to smell it out. I have had similar examples of their very efficient noses when our first hen died and we buried it deeply at the end of the garden but a fox still smelt it out and by morning there was nothing left but a big hole.

Poor old fish...I am certain it would have been dead by the time the fox found it and at least the fox went away happy with a full tummy.