There's a stray cat near the pond.....

My Lord, its cold out there!!! The new year certainly came in like a lion. Not so much snow but bitter cold. Last week saw temps routinely below zero and this week promises lows double digit below zero and only single digits during the day. About the only consolation is the sun has been shining and the beautiful full "blue moon" has been absolutely gorgeous on the sparkling white snow at night. Both are best enjoyed behind closed windows and standing near fire places inside, though. Its been so cold out that I didn't even leave the house all weekend to simply walk out and peek at the pond. I have a feeling that the ever enclosing aerator hole is even possibly frozen shut. My garage is not attached to the house and I must make the short jaunt outside to get into my vehicle every morning. As a normal ritual,I glance in the direction of the waterfall. This morning I happened to notice a stray cat sitting at the aerator hole. The hole is always surrounded by animal tracks as the birds, squirrels, rabbits, cats, and occasionally coons or dogs are attracted to the last bit of open water. And that pond owners, is how you get dead carcasses in your pond. Many a pond owner has had their pond thaw out in the Spring only to find decayed squirrels or rabbits rotting and deteriorating water quality. One more argument for water change outs even during the winter. While the cold temps certainly slow the process, it is still going on. Animals approach the hole not having a clue how thin the surrounding ice might be. Once in the freezing water and no footing, all animals are doomed to drown. Contrary to this morbid scene is the even more gruesome discovery that the nearby tracks belong to that of a mink. As one of our pond club members discovered last year, mink, who are excellent swimmers and not deterred by the cold water one little bit, can completely wipe out a pond of koi and without you even knowing about it if you don't do regular pond checks. The mink will enter through the conveniently provided open hole, chase your koi till they catch one and carry it back to the safety of their den or eat it pond side just to spite you. The fish they don't catch will be missing tails, fins, scales, and anything else the mink can get his teeth or claws into. Usually they will continue to return till they have depleted the food source, though. If this should ever happen to you, dieing the water jet black might help under emergency situations till you can get the mink trapped. The biggest problem with dieing the water is you can't see the fish either. Hopefully,none of you will ever have to experience this. So, I'll have to be sure to walk out to the pond tonight on the way from the garage to the warmth of the house. I'm thinking the hole will be closed, but I'll check it out anyway and double check the backup floating light too while I'm there. I feel so bad for my fish out there. It just seems so cruel to leave them out there in the near freezing water. Hopefully January will warm up soon. They say the snowfall is actually insulating the ground. So we have that going for us. Where's that January thaw thing, everybody talks about? In the mean time, its cold... its way cold!!!