yes, Penny, our cats are strickly indoor ones. this is an OLD pond, and not the first time this has happened, but it has been 4 or 5 years since it happed. I'm for putting chicken wire over the top but it would have to be rather large piece and the racoon would probably tear things up by diggin under it. On another front, we have the professional horticulturists touring our yard tomorrow evening and we wanted everything to look "perfect" - or at least as perfect as it CAN. Why or why does this have to happen NOW? At 12:14 AM 6/29/98 -0400, you wrote: >Barb, that's a first class heart break! It makes a person afraid to >open the door in the morning, for a look around.. Your cats are >indoor pets, aren't they? I know that we used to get cherries on our >two big trees until we stopped having a dog.. > >Is this a new pond? Is it a new problem? And is there any >method of prevention...? Barb Rothenberger Columbia, Mo. See our pictures of the Philadelphia flower show http://www.geocities.com/PicketFence/3257/