Moving our curious cross-breed Brutus into the front yard to protect our fish from a marauding raccoon seems to have worked.

The five survivors from the first attack have regained their friskiness, and the water foliage is in full self-repair.

At about 1 a.m. this morning, there was a ferocious burst of activity outside our front door, as Brutus leapt into action against some unseen adversary.   Silence (and sleep for those of us indoors) returned in less than 30 seconds.

The frisky fivesome are still intact this morning.

And although I didn't actually see the what was trying to invade our front yard, I am pretty sure it was an attempted return visit by the raccoon.

I wonder how many times a raccoon needs to be chased off, for it to permanently remove a site from its visiting list.   That is, will Brutus now have to act as night guard for the rest of his natural? And when he finally goes to the Great Kennel In The Sky, will I have to get a new guard dog, or lose the fish?