Life And Death In The Garden

i think something (somebody) fell into my pond yesterday. We have a pond de icer to keep a hole open in the ice in winter - i had it turned off, but had a very thin layer if ice a foot around it because it was turned on the day before. Came home from work, it had snowed and there was a light layer of snow laying on the thin ice. Curiously, though, there was a small hole in the ice, nowhere near the heater, and the snow layer around it was dark, like it had gotten wet. Although it was quite subtle, i had never seen anything resembling that before, and i'm really concerned that a bunny or squirrel had fallen through! Damn! i really hate animals dying in my yard, especially if it's kind of my fault! Plus, most of the rest of the pond has a thick, snow covered layer of ice on it- i'm never gonna be able to find anything if something DID fall in - so a dead body in there certainly will be dangerous for the fish when it decomposes. i could be wrong, though, and will have to keep my fingers crossed that nothing really happened.

These pics are a few weeks old - before the snow fell!

A couple of years ago, we were having trouble with raccoons spending too much time around the pond, and i set up little mousetraps here and there to discourage their new hobby. I had also put out little birdhouses in our trees in the Spring, so a few baby Wrens had just hatched nearby, and i 'd enjoy watching both parents feeding them. All was well for a while, then one day, i found one of the adult Wrens dead  in one of the traps! It's leg had been caught... i was very upset }:(  

Not knowledgeable enough to tell male from female, i of course assumed that it was Mom, which made me feel even worse! I got rid of the traps.

And yes, i find a fledgling bird in the water on occasion - although i never seem to find it before it's too late! Now, my cat Skeeter sometimes catches a Mole in the yard and, being a normally indoor cat, will not eat it, but will play with it to death. That's the one case in which Mom (me) turns the other cheek and lets Skeeter have her fun-saves my yard from being destroyed! (Although i still feel bad....)