Lots of critters. The house we recently bought is pretty much in the heart of this city, but because of it’s environs it is alot like living in the country. There is a pond at the back of my property that is still owned by the church that we bought the house from, but I consider it my pond. Rick, the man in charge of the physical plant of the church (and thus the pond), encourages me to do whatever I like as long as it doesn’t involve chemicals. If it does, I have to ask first, because he might have put some in and we don’t want a big fish kill or the water turning purple or whatever.
The pond has hundreds of small catfish which a member of the church put in there the year before last. I’ve caught a few bream. It also has dozens of turtles. A few wild geese stop by regularly. This morning I caught a glimpse of a heron or stork taking off as I was coming out of the back door. If you add in the frogs, squirrels, rabbits, snakes, birds, lizards and things I have yet to see, it is a veritable menagerie on 2 acres.
You would think that with all this life thriving, the catfish would be getting huge. Not so. They have an inordinate amount of competition for the relatively scarce food resources. So in the self-interest of wanting bigger catfish to eat, i have undertaken a feeding program.
I went to Brown Feed and Seed which is a store that looks like it is pretty much unchanged since the 60s. I purchased two 50 lb bags of floating fish food for $16 each. I figured I would throw a pound or two into the pond every day and fatten the little suckers up.
Turns out I’m feeding about 50% of all the critteers I have mentioned. Even the normally shy turtles have taken to swimming in at the sight of me. The wild geese change course and land on the pond if I’m outside. If you count the number of organisms that are happy to see me as a measure of popularity, I may well be the most popular person in Martinez.
Don’t think that the joy the fish feel at the sight of me is going to make me soft on them. Let them get big enough. I’m gonna eat them jokers.