DollsArtCats

When I went out this evening, the cats were looking at the pond, and I remembered that I should give the fish a bit more food since I underfed them the last time, and they had started gnawing on the water plants in earnest. But I looked down through the plants, and there was a huge turtle head--a snapping turtle, that eats fish. So I wrapped up a broom handle with a rag and prodded at it, hoping it would climb out and leave. It just hunkered down between the rocks. Here is it's head: So J came home, and called the Sheriff's department about "unwanted wildlife" and we got permission to move it to the retaining pond down the street (where it most likely came from), and J got a flat shovel and managed to get the turtle on it, and then into a trash can. The turtle is about 12 inches across the shell. Then the can, with the turtle, was lifted up, and some local kids and Randy from across the street escorted the turtle to the pond, where it reluctantly clambered out into...

...and it does this. And I was just moving them, as I have no time to paint this week, but I was hoping to set up a place to do it on the sun porch. An hour later it looked like this: I did take some pictures of the koi that I promised K ages ago: I also have ice fish now, courtesy of Ikea: And finally, I was potting some torenia, and I have a large bag of potting soil that has been open a day or two by the barbeque. I reach in for a double handful of soil (and I am not wearing gloves, because it's easier to get the dirt down around the roots without them) and the handful of dirt I pull out feels sort of... rubbery..and then it squirms and hops away--it's a very dirty little toad. I say PTEE or something like that, the cat on the porch levitates, the toad hops away and disappears. He was too dirty to be photogenic, but I am glad I have enough toads that they can just hang around the porch.

Here is a better photo of a fish head in my pond--there are 5 fish in there; yesterday I caught them lined up, sunning themselves. Everyone looks fine. Since it was above 40 degrees, we went for a walk to look at muskrats in a local pond. The pond needs some serious dipping for string algae, not to mention bottles, but there were several muskrats feeding on the bank: Of course when they saw us, they ran down and plopped into the water, looking annoyed: We also saw an amusing mailbox: The cats are enjoying being out--the gray cat here was pretending to be a lion on the savanna: Later he brought in a baby squirrel for dinner. He's been ignoring his wet food for a few days now.

I have to spend some time today moving leaves, so I can find my front steps. I was told by a neighbor to cover the koi pond, as a layer of leaves on the surface can stifle them. Who knew? I am also adding cold water bacteria and not feeding the fish when the floating thermometer says it's too cold, though the fish give me the evil eye when I go away without giving them their pellets. They are already at least an inch bigger than they were in August.