Senin wrote the following:
I have a decorative outdoor water fountain (actually 2 of them).
Unfortunately every year the leaves fall into the fountain and
eventually the pump gets clogged. I try to clean out the leaves as
much as possible but the leaves wear down the pump and the pump
stops. It will work sporatically, then stop all together. Then I
have to buy another pump. This has been repeated several times. Any
suggestions on how to keep the leaves out of the pump?


How about a homemade screen around the pump. Here is an example used
over a gutter downspout.
http://bmary.com/DownspoutScreen.html