The Mysterious Marauder?

We think we may have discovered the mysterious marauder. The night before we left for New York, we heard cats making a commotion in the back yard. It was late, we were tired and, thinking it was cats making whoopie, we ignored the noise. Our phone rang at 11:30 pm. It was the neighbor wondering whether the chickens she heard squawking their heads off were ours. Hers were sleeping peacefully. Jim ran out to check. He found a fox dragging off one of the chickens. A quick inspection showed that the fox had dug a hole into the coop. He had dragged out both chickens. Jim grabbed the closest weapon on hand, a pitchfork, and chased the fox away. He returned both chickens to the coop. One seemed to be injured but still alive and the other already dead. Jim went back to bed.

We left the house before 6 am the next day to catch a plane wondering what had happened to our poor chickens. It had been too dark to investigate and time had been limited. Jim sent a message to our caretaker who later informed us that the fox had evidently returned and eaten one of the chickens. The other was dead. We haven't seen hide nor hair of the fox since. The rest of the chickens have been safely secured.