Not really a pet, but lost a back yard bunny yesterday.
This spring, a wild bunny showed up in my back yard. He (she?) was very cute and entertained us for many hours. The bunny had a schedule, you could almost always spot it in the same place at the same time of day.
It didn't seem to be terribly afraid of us, as we'd accidentally realize we were standing pretty close to it on occasion. If we got too close, it would hop away, but only ran from us in the beginning. It was like it seemed to know we weren't any danger to it.
I had to adjust the sprinkler settings to avoid watering certain areas when the bunny was there, as once I'd trapped him up against the house with the sprinklers--it didn't know where to go, so it crouched down behind the shrubs with its ears down. I turned off the sprinklers quickly, and waited for him to move to another area before turning them back on.
Yesterday morning, I was on the back patio turning on sprinklers when I heard a disturbance back by the fence that separates our yard from the neighbors. I looked just in time to see a red tail run under the fence. I thought it was the neighbor's orange tabby cat going after a bird, as a bunch of birds flew away from the area at the same time. A couple of seconds later, a fox came back under the fence, and was eating the prey it captured.
At first, I thought he must have caught a bird, but I soon began to worry that he'd caught the bunny. I turned on the sprinklers along the fence to scare the fox off, realizing it was too late to save whatever it caught.
It's been almost 24 hours now, and I haven't seen the bunny, so I'm afraid that's what he caught. I miss the bunny because it was so entertaining to watch. Two other bunnies have been hanging around in the front yard mostly, always together. It was rare to see all three in the same place at the same time.
Last night, we spotted one bunny in the front yard. I had hoped it was the one we normally saw in the back yard, but after taking a close look, it wasn't. I guess the fox may have grabbed two bunnies yesterday since the one in front was always with another bunny.
I live right in the middle of the city, so I'd hoped my back yard would be a safe place for the bunny to live. There's a forested area not far from me, and the city has been installing new water lines, streets, and working on storm water drainage the last year, so I figured their presence was disrupting the fox's natural environment, causing it to wander into areas it normally didn't visit. That work has now moved on to another area, so I hoped the fox would stay away as I'd seen it in the front and back yard a couple of times last fall and winter, but hadn't seen it in months until yesterday.
I realize this is the way things work in nature, but I miss the little bunny that was so much fun to watch. What an awful way to die.
I'm going to call the city tomorrow and see if they can set a trap for the fox and relocate it to a more appropriate area before it grabs a neighbor's cat or dog. We have leash laws, but so many people just let their animals run loose. I would have felt really bad if it had caught the neighbor's orange tabby, as he's very friendly and stops by regularly to visit.
I wish people would take better care of their pets instead of letting them wander around loose, exposing them to danger.
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I'm glad I didn't know for certain at the time what the fox had caught. I saw it eating, but couldn't tell what had been caught. I'm sure you were very upset seeing your squirrel taken away like that!
Nature does suck. 
That is heartbreaking.
We have hoards of bunnies where I live. We also have foxes, but I've been concerned about them since I used to see one or both of the two I became familiar with almost every night while out walking the dog, but we haven't seen either one since March.
For years though there was one bunny that the dog I had at the time, Boo, and I got very familiar with. He used to wait at the top of the hill for us on our nightly walks right under the street lamp. He loved to tease Boo by hopping just out of his range and then stopping and waiting for Boo to follow again, and we'd go on this way sometimes for a couple of blocks until Mr. Bunny-bun got bored with it and hopped off to other things. He also used to like to tease Boo by having him chase him around the big pine tree next to the street lamp where he waited for us every night and then dodge under the tree until Boo started circling around it looking for him then he'd doge out again right in front of him or under his belly, and they'd start going round the tree again.
Every night he was there smack on the dot of midnight waiting for us, but if we were about a half hour late he wouldn't be there waiting, but he'd be there when we were on our way home... he was only there when we were on our way home if we'd missed him by being late on our way there. Boo always insisted we rush to be on our way on time so we didn't miss Mr. Bunny-bun, and he was always rushing to the top of the hill where he waited with tail wagging to see him, but if we were late he was in misery if he wasn't there.
This went on for a long time. I always worried that Mr. Bunny-bun would get caught by one of the foxes, but he never did... but then there were plenty of other bunnies for the foxes to go after. STill, I worried because that was the one area where lots of bunnies are and where the foxes would come almost every night in search of a meal.
Then Boo got the cancer in his leg, and a couple of weeks before he died he couldn't do walks that far anymore. Boo would always look wistfully in the direction of the hill before I had to turn him back around so he could make it back home. After Boo went to heaven I was constantly imagining Mr. Bunny-bun waiting for us every night at the top of the hill and us not showing up, and it made my cry, the idea was so upsetting.
Then I got Yoshi, and Mr. Bunny-bun was there again at his spot at the top of the hill waiting for us every night, and I was so overjoyed to see him. But before Yoshi got a chance to really get in a pattern of visiting with Mr. Bunny-bun on our walks, suddenly one night he wasn't there, and we've never seen him again. I hate the idea that a fox got him, but he could have just died of old age. I was already amazed at how long he was around since I wouldn't think bunnies lived for years.
I still get choked up remembering Boo sadly looking toward the hill where Mr. Bunny-bun waited and not being able to go that far anymore or imagining Mr. Bunny-bun in his usual spot waiting for us every night after Boo passed away. Now it makes me sad that just when Yoshi and he were getting to know each other he's disappeared and gone for good. I just hope that Boo and Mr. Bunny-bun are now playing together in heaven.
Bunnies are so cute to watch, especially when they trust you.
I had a mother here who may have been tame at one time, with babies ... for a few years. They'd just hop about peacefully when I cut the grass or did anything outside. Then they disappeared within days. We have coyotes around, someone saw a huge one in my yard one night while I was working, so I'm assuming that's what happened. It really is sad, and you do miss them.
