I’m slow on the uptake sometimes. I was going to add some water to the upper pond. I keep a watering can full of city water that I allow to sit over night to expel all the bad chemicals (and our city water has a ton of them). Usually I just need to add a little water to each pond every other day.
The first thing I noticed was tiny white specks floating in the muddy water.
“What the…?” I reached for the net and began to scoop the dots out. THEN I noticed that the moss in one of the planters had been dislodged and turned upside down. Mind you, this pond is only about 24″ in circumference and holds 15 gallons of water.
“WHAT?” My voice was getting a little louder now.
THEN, by some miracle of observation, I noted that the blue planter had been thoroughly trashed and the water lily was gone.
“What in holy!? WHAT?!”
My husband hurried over, “What’s wrong?”
“Some critter trashed the planters.”
Yup, the white floaters were vermiculite. The water was muddier than normal. There was even dirt up on the rocks.
Well, isn’t that a fine “how-do-you-do”!
I replaced the moss on the first planter, no real damage done. Dug through the blue planter and found the lily had merely been pulled out and then stuffed back in, upside-down. It was fine and quite salvageable.
The pond is murky brown, I’m not certain any fish still live in it, and the pump was pumping muddy water. I just cleaned that pump yesterday, thank you very much.
If we lived in Seattle, I could hope it was the work of one Jimothy the short-spined raccoon, but I don’t live in Seattle and it was more likely the damage done by a normal sized masked bandit. I don’t think it was the work of a squirrel or a crow: the water lily had been uprooted, turned over, and stuffed back into the planter. I also don’t think it was the work of one muppet named Ruger, although he is one of the primary reasons I have to add water every day: he thinks pond water is better than clean water in his dish. Also, he’s out by nine at night and is only outside long enough to potty sometime in the early morning hours.
I didn’t think to take photos before I rescued plants. I will need to add soil to the blue planter, but it looks like the lily will survive. There’s so much mud in the water that I will have to completely empty the pond and clean it out. If any fish managed to survive, I will relocate them to the lower pond with the other mosquito fish. Then I will refill this pond with clean city water and let it sit a day or two before I call Vector Control to add new gambusia.
Also, I have a trail camera. It wasn’t set up last night, but it is set up now. We may not know what the vandal looks like but we are certain it will return to the scene of the crime!
Jaci Dawn 