Last night I removed a rather large garter snake from my garden and relocated him to a distant area of the cemetery.  The snake might have been large enough to make a meal of my littlest Koi and I wasn’t taking any chances.  The little Koi is growing rapidly and turning into quite a character.  He (We’ll use he here because at this age who knows.) never misses a meal.

     When I first got him he was tiny compared our other Koi.  Since then his size has quadrupled.  He’s not afraid of the much bigger Koi either.  He’ll swim right over their heads to seize a prime piece of food.  When I brought him home he was black and yellow and, much to my disappointment, he’s become more black and orange than yellow.  However, his personality makes up for his change of color.  He is a brazen little devil.

     We hadn’t seen our toad since the night my neighbor’s son gave him to us and we set him free in the garden.  Last night I found him quite by accident.  I picked up the green recycling can to put it out and there he was not happy that I discovered his hiding place.  I inverted a clay pot over him and propped one end up with a small clay saucer so he could get out if he wanted.  DH said he was gone when he put the can back in the morning.