Fox... all my little chookies gone

I went out Wednesday mid-morning to find all my babies gone. Blossom, Petal and Basil - my silkies. Martha - my cheeky Aylesbury girl. Rosie my wyandotte pullet. Just gone. I thought maybe Nic had moved them until I saw a few feathers and the hole. As best I can figure it was a fox. I haven't found anything except a few feathers near a hole that was dug under their pen... under the patio tiles and sunkwire meant to stop attacks.

They were maybe 3 meters from my bedroom window. I looked around the whole property hoping someone had gotten away or thinking maybe they were hurt... I couldn't bear it if they were out there and suffering. I tracked through the grass out to the road across the neighbors field but lost it after that.

I spent all of yesterday just bawling my eyes out. I don't think I've cried so hard since I lost my Collie suddenly to heartfailure as a college freshman... I've lost 2 other dogs since but they were ready and passed away peacefully in my arms, loved and completely unafraid. I've been randomly bursting out all day today, couldn't sleep last night, finally gave up about 5 am. I went out to the garden to do some weeding and started crying when I realized they weren't sitting with me the way they always did when I weeded. My mind just can't understand how my littles are gone when the evening before they were sitting in my lap, getting treats, Blossom preening my hair and lowering her head for scratches 'chuc chuc chuc'ing at me softly. Petal sitting on my leg and hopping off to peck a bug when I turned one up as I weeded, then hopping back on to wait for another. Basil sitting nearby and watching for me to hand him sowbugs before the greedygut girls gobbled them all. Martha looking like a duckie bulldozer poking about for snails under the mulch, tail waggling and qwocking constantly under her breath and Rosie trying to gobble up more bugs while Jarrah, my roo did his little dance and Penny napped. Anyone who has seen the pics on my blog from a few days back of my son cuddling and giving them rides on his pedal tractor knows how friendly they are. I'm just sick every time I think of how scared they must have been, they're completely tame, theyve never known anything but gentleness.

I still have Jarrah and Penny, my wyandotte roo and hen and the chicks which were all in my house still under lights. Jarrah and Penny had been seperated from the others as I wanted them to breed but not with the silkies of course and Rosie would scatter Penny's eggs if she had access.

I *thought* my pen was pretty safe, I'm not sure what else I can do to proof it besides weld avairy mesh to the bottom of their nightshed inside it. The pen is sided with a tough wire mesh (think like sheep fence but smaller squares and an additional wire along the ground to prevent it being pushed up) and chickenwire over it along the bottom, netting on the top to prevent hawks/crows/cats, sunk wiring, 12x12 patio pavers surrounding to discourage tunneling. Jarrah and Penny are in my garage/shed which has cement floors and colourbond walls so hopefully htey're safe at least.

Sorry this is so long and rambly. My mind is just not straight and I don't have the heart go edit and spell check atm. I may not be on much over the next few days. I'd been intending to go to Euroa on the weekend to buy more silkies. My husband reckons we should still go but I'm really not sure I wouldn't just be a blubbering idiot.

(I copied what I wrote on Backyard Poultry as I didn't want to try and write it all again. I went and looked again this afternoon in case anyone had been in hiding and too afraid to come out but only found some of Rosie's down feathers. I had to check again because I think the fox probably ended it for Blossom, Petal and Basil quickly being that they were small... gods I really hope it was quick for them and at least they didn't suffer... but the feathers I tracked from the chooks pen all the way across the front garden, across the neighbors paddocks and to the road the other day were Martha's and it looked like she put up a fight most of that way so I was afraid/hoping/I don't know that maybe there was a chance it let go of her. It's a long way and looks like she was attempting to fight most of it. With the clump I found today, they were Wyandotte down, in a clump, with scuffed marks in the dirt so I thought she must have got away at one point but I guess the fox must have grabbed her again as there's no other sign she got away or any further struggle.)