He sits by the pond and looks
around at the flora and fauna.
The birds now trust him enough
to ignore him as they go from
hiding in the Arborvitae to bath-
ing in the waterfall to eating at
the feeder. Now that the water
temperature in the pond is above
forty-five degrees Fahrenheit, the
fish move around some, venturing
to the surface to catch a nibble of
this or that, sometimes spitting it
right back out. They even trust
the man to toss them a couple of
hands full of fish food every now
and then and go back to swimming
and doing whatever else it is that
fish do in the confines of a one
thousand gallon pond with a pump
big enough to turn the water over
every few hours. Sometimes deer
stop by during the wee hours of
the morning and, apparently, a fox
used to do the same before it died
of unknown causes right in the man’s
yard. The neighbor found it and
thought it appropriate to bury it
right where he found it. So far,
the Chocolate Lab who trusts the
man but doesn’t ignore him as the
birds and fish do, in fact quite
the opposite, hasn’t noticed the
dead fox. For that, the man is
extremely thankful. A black bear
was sighted ten miles north of the
man’s property, farthest south ever
for a bear sighting. He imagines
the bear will be a guest in the
neighborhood one day. He’ll see
how fast the trust goes away.