Years ago, when I first dug the small pond behind the cabin, I stocked it with a few goldfish. They have thrived--reproducing and living out their little lives in peace and idleness, interrupted only by scattered moments of apparent bliss when I think to toss them some stale bread crumbs.
And almost from the very beginning the pond has also been home to a single, decorative water snake. I do not feed the snake bread crumbs. I do not feed the snake anything at all.
The snake feeds itself.
