A bit of a mystery

It wasn't until a couple of days ago that John and I noticed that something was amiss with the pond. Usually when you stand next to it, the fish automatically relate this to be being fed and come to the surface. But, when we threw food into the water, no reaction whatsoever. Eventually a few fish would retrieve the food. It was then that we realised all three of our large koi carp were missing, together with a load of others. The first reaction was 'you bloody thieves, what are you gonna steal from us next?' Over the years we have had a van broken into and a cd player stolen, the garden raided with statues and plants stolen, money stolen from the house, an attempted break-in of John's car and a fire deliberately started at the end of the garden. However, a while later John found fish scales on the lawn, and bits of fish in the shrubbery. This seemed to indicate that it was an animal which had gotten the fish. But what the heck is strong enough to get three large koi out of a fairly deep pond? A fox has been suggested but I've never heard of foxes liking water. A heron is another possibility, however, they tend to wade into water from a shallow part - our pond is a sheer drop with rocks all around it. It wasn't until yesterday when I heard seagulls above the garden, that it could be them. They are nasty pieces of
work and are scavangers so who knows? Watever it was, has freaked out the fish big time as the ones remaining are very relunctant to come to the surface fr food.

We're both very upset, especially as John has had many of these fish for about 20 years, one in particularly we named Harry McFinn 'The Scottish koi' - he was the biggest boy of all and the only one with a name. I will miss his 'sucking' of the water and his impressions of a dolphin! Poor things. I hate to think they were mauled to death by something.