fishing

Big Mama's posse just got one member smaller.

She was circling her pond the other day glaring at me every time I walked by. I knew she was hungry and intended to feed her but I was busy with other tasks.

Yes, yes, I'm going to feed you, keep your shirt on, I told her.

When I finally went out there with a handful of grapes and knocked on the side of her pond, she didn't show up so I started looking for her. Then she swam across the pond with one of the big goldfish in her mouth.

Red ear sliders are supposed to be almost complete vegetarians by the time they are as old as she is.

'Almost' was the key word I guess.

She swam around the pond chowing down on that goldfish, entrails streaming behind. I wondered if she had bitten off more than she could chew, so to speak, and the thing was stuck in her mouth. So I got a stick and tried to dislodge it and we tussled over it for a bit. I finally got it out of her mouth and she immediately lunged for it again, biting down on it and swimming away from me as fast as she could go.

OK, that answers that. The fish was not jammed in her mouth. Well, it was, but she didn't seem to be having a problem with it.

I knew she was hungry. She always gets really hungry right before she gets the urge to find a place to lay eggs and she's already been out of the pond for short forays twice but she's lived with those fish for years.

When I went back out there an hour or so later, she was swimming around all innocent like with no sign of the remains of the goldfish.

Guess I should have been feeding her a little more frequently.