Yeah, we came to the conclusion it was a fox, after doing some google research. Aparently if there are fox-cubs, a mother fox will come into town for food if needed.
I was very upset at losing my darlings (still am).... empty nest of a different kind! 
Thanx for your info, Kelso
"90% of these flying catastrophes have never seen the sea, with their webbed feet being superfluous to requirements"
That's got to be the best, funniest and marvellous descriptions I've ever read regarding seagulls ..... 
I'm not directing this comment at anyone in particular, but it gets me the way Australians feel free to express an opinion on everything and anything happening in other countries (especially the United States) but if someone from another country dares to do the same and express an opinion (or an objection) about something the Australians are doing, then the attitude is immediately taken that they should mind their own business.
People who care about animals feel that animals in ALL parts of the world are their business.
I feel exactly the way Bardot does. I'm appalled and disgusted by this planned feral cat cull. We have a feral cat problem in the US too, but no way would a mass extermination be supported. There are programs all over the US to deal with these cats in a HUMANE way. Namely, trapping, neutering, vaccinating, then returning them to the area they were living in, or moving them to a different area if the original one isn't feasible for some reason. The ideal thing is to have these colonies monitored and reguarly fed until they die out. I, myself, have helped monitor a feral cat colony and have also taken care of individual feral cats for years.
Yes, feral cats have an impact on native wildlife but I think it's wildly overexaggerated by people who just use feral cats as a convenient scapegoat and because a lot of people hate cats in general--and especially feral cats. Domesticated dogs and cats, pollution, hunting, and haitat loss are what's mainly responsible for the loss of wildlife.
A mass killing isn't going to solve the problem. Only laws forcing people to neuter their pet cats will. Also, fines levied against people who abandon their cats so they end up turning wild. (We don't have any laws in most of the US either requiring pets to be neutered . 
),. Mass extermination is a temporary solution to what's going to be a continuous problem until people start taking proper responsibility for their pets.
I constantly read on this board how some of you wouldn't want to live in the United States. Well, I'm glad I don't live in a country that seems so backwards when it comes to the welfare of ALL animals..And btw, I've come across some mean feral cats in my time (took care of one for eight years. She never knew how much I loved her.) But most are extremely timid and just want to be left alone. Stories about ferocious mountain lion-sized ferals capable of carrying off somebody's poodle are (9 times out of 10)--malarky. Not doubting what some here have said they've experienced, but the hear-say stories so often bandied about have to be taken with a big grain of salt, IMO.
@*pepe wrote:the problem with neutering and releasing and waiting for the population to die out is not just a huge financial issue but in the meantime endangered species of native wildlife are still being decimated and it is simply just not feasible.
yes the problem with feral cats, foxes, rabbits, camels, cane toads, wild pigs etc is man made but it has to be dealt with and humane controlled mass culling is really the ony way.
And by the way it is not only tolerated in your country, there are even tv shows made about it - does alligator hunting ring a bell?
Do you really think TWO MILLION alligators are hunted and killed in the United States every year? Or two million deer? Or any other species of animal? Killing two million feral cats is a mass slaughter on an epic scale. And I'm sure it's only a start. Because you, yourself, said that just killing two million wouldn't be enough, since, supposedly, there's an estimated twenty million feral cats in Australia.
Without more humane measures being taken like neutering, the feral cat population will continue to grow necessitating more mass killing,. And that argument about the financial aspects of neutering being too costly is the same one that's tried over here by people who just want feral cats gone. And it doesn't hold water, because the costs involved with sending people out to kill cats, or bring them into shelters to be killed is a lot greater.
What it comes down to is that there are two ways to handle the problem. The inhumane way of exterminating feral cats like they were vermin or "culling" them by neutering and clamping down on the people who will continue to cause the problem no matter how many mass kills there are. What I meant when I said what Australia plans to do wouldn't be tolerated in the US, is that there are enough animal welfare groups here that constantly advocate for the more humane way of dealing with ferals..
And now I really am done with this subject because I'm repeating myself and that always gives me a headache.
