This is something that has plagued me since my childhood. When I was a young lad of eleven I was fishing at one of the many ponds located on the property we lived on. I’d caught quite a few but I always released them back into the water. The sun was beginning to set and it was then that I hooked a rather small bass-- maybe 6 or 7 inches.
I can’t really explain why I did what happens next. You see, there was a small man made pond in the woods near my house and I thought it would be cool if I put this poor little fish in it, that way he’d be like my very own pet. The “pond” in question was perhaps seven yards wide and five across. About two and a 1/2 feet deep. Marshy too. The only thing that lived in it were frogs and the occasional turtle.
So, I got a bucket and transported my fishy friend to his new home and planned to come back the following morning to check up on him and feed him some fish pellets.
However, things were not meant to be. When I arrived the next day I was witness to a terrible sight. My fish was dead. Not just dead-- eaten. All that remained was this skeleton which was completely intact, lying in the mud at the bottom of the pond. He’d been picked clean, the white of his bones a stark contrast to the dark murky bed of the pool.
Now… what bothers me about this incident is that the bones were still connected to one another. It looked as though he’d been dead for months. There was flesh or anything left. But, if he was eaten how is it that the bones remained seemingly untouched? It had been less than 24 hours since I’d placed him there.
My Mum said it was a raccoon. I’ve been racked by guilt ever since. I don’t expect to find any answers, thoug this would the best place to find them.