 Growers of these vine-ripe delectables will tell you that along with ownership goes a responsibility for being ever alert, willing, and capable of fending off attacks by predators who would take possession of the succulent cucurbits. There is, of course, the two-legged species of watermelon thief, in fact and fiction, the alleged control for which is a 12-gauge No. 8 load, also in fact and fiction.