I vote cat. They kill for sport. As do terriers, but a cat would be stealthy while the dog would work itself up into a barking frenzy. Most other predators would eat the prey, or at least carry it away.

Yea, most wildlife kill to eat for survival. Cats and people kill for sport.

Guess there could be two different things going on here between the captive fish? and the others? Well unless the cat got in the tub? Or Not.

I find it strange that a neighbor's cat would leave the kills near YOUR back door instead of its owner's door.

O me too, or a feral cat or a bobcat. Unless it is a secret admirer, I guess?

Camera time for me.

My first though with the fish situation was raccoons but I never see ours out in the country going for small game. For us that is the bobcats and the foxes. You might want to contact your local county ag extension agent and ask about local predator problems. They track those issues.

Dave

My guess would be a cat too. The folks who let me garden on their rural property have several cats, which frequently hunt in my garden. They often hill mice & voles - which I really appreciate - but seldom eat them. I find the dead mice laying in the paths. As others have stated, most other predators will eat what they kill.

The goldfish in the tub would have been easy prey, as opposed to those in the pond. While a cat may have killed the fish, because all of the fish were apparently eaten, a raccoon would be my first suspect in that case. Raccoons have been really bad this year.

I think raccoons ate your fish and someone's cat is messing with the local small mammal population.

After seeing all this, my feeling is that there are two predators. I think a raccoon got the fish. They were in about a foot and a half of water, and they were definitely eaten. I don't think a cat would do that. I think what puzzled me about the recent kills was the fact that 2 of them were in the pond. It has a small decorative fence around it (picture attached) so I couldn't think why a cat would put them in there. That's why I was thinking it was still a raccoon. Maybe, though, the injured animals, in their panic to get away ran into the water and downed.

Also wanted to note that we do have a variety of predators here. I've seen cats, possums, skunks, foxes and hawks. Never seen a raccoon, but I'm sure that they're around. I know that coyotes have also been spotted on the outskirts of town, though I don't think they hang out where I am located.

I may have missed where you are located but coons are almost everywhere. And so are cats <smile>

I'm in Wisconsin (home of Rascal, for any Sterling North fans) so I don't doubt that there are a multitude of masked bandits roaming about. They are just too smart to let themselves be seen. And cats are indeed everywhere! ;)

I have to say...does not look like a cat kill to me...we have a good population of feral cats here, and they get moles, mice, chipmonks...every single time I've seen a cat kill, there have always been teeth marks on the neck...not little ones, very obvious teeth gashes...

the fur peeled back on that mole is very odd...no cat I ever saw does that...a weasel might, but then again, you'd see the marks on the neck. I wonder about some kind of bird...hawk, owl...etc...this is the time of year when babies practice and learn...the only animal I've seen pluck fur like that was an eagle on a video cam of the nest...it plucked the fur off of a rabbit for it's young...reminds me of that.

We have Blue Herons here, and I know when they bring the babies to "learn", because I find dead fish with a single hole through them...herons spear their prey...that's why I think it's a bird learning..

Forgot to say...beautiful pond! Well done!