But when we came home we discovered a dead muscovy (so grateful it wasn't one of our beautiful snowy call ducks) and an excited Emma. Emma is our golden retriever who is the sweetest dog and wouldn't harm a fly. However, we concluded from the evidence in the pond, that she thought she had gained a playmate in the water and initiated a chase. Dakota may be a good guard dog but she is also a very competitive dog when it comes to the golden retrievers. So she would have wanted to up Emma and take whatever she had. And using her mouth is no issue with Dakota, so would have taken over the chase and taken the duck down.
My boy was pretty upset, though very relieved that his duck Ben hadn't been the dead bird. (Ben is the re-christened name of Daphe the duck.) Then while there was death occuring outside, at the exact moment inside the barn, life was happening. Our new rabbit, Lacey, was giving birth to her litter. We came home to find a dead duck and 9 newborn bunnies. We had even checked on Lacey before leaving and she hadn't even begun building her nest. So we were quite pleased with this sight.