CHRISTINA EICHELKRAUT / PVT This pond's denizens could be moved to the duck pond at the Calvada Eye. Advertisement

Donna and Ty Blair never thought they'd end up taking care of a variety of fish, several goats and two pot-bellied pigs, one of them pregnant.

But that's exactly what they found themselves doing when their neighbors, Nicole and Adam Ulrich, literally abandoned the Dyer Road property where they were living next door earlier this year.

"They just walked out on (the property), they just abandoned it," Donna Blair said. "I can't believe someone would leave something so beautiful."

The property was available through Help U Sell, but the Ulriches left prior to being sold.

The Ulriches left the house -- with food still in pots on the stove -- without any warning to the Blairs, and in their wake they also left a quickly evaporating pond in the backyard as well as the animals.

The Blairs weren't interested in living next door to a possible cesspool of dead fish and mosquitoes, so they took it upon themselves to water the pond and feed the fish.

They also took care of the pigs until that became too much to handle, and then Animal Control was called.

As for the goats, they were apparently stolen.

According to Ty Blair, one day the goats were there, and the next they weren't.

He has been feeding the ducks that call the backyard pond home, as well as sprinkling fish food for the koi, large-mouth bass and up to three-foot-long catfish that spend their days swimming around in a rapidly disappearing pond.

When asked why she and her husband are going to all this trouble, Donna Blair said, "If this pond dies, we have an environmental hazard. And we're good people, we just don't want to see all those fish die."

She pointed out that dead fish would only attract mosquitoes and flies, and she thought they could pose a health hazard.

"I won't see an environment die, and I won't live next door to something really nasty," she said, referring to the smell of rotting food that wafts toward the Blairs' home when it's windy.

The Blairs have used their own garden hose to water the pond 24 hours a day, and have been watching their own power bill rise as a result.

Indicating the hose spurting water into the pond, Ty Blair said, "If that goes off, the water goes down about three inches in a day."

Back in April, Brent Jones of Nye County Emergency Services was notified about the problem.

As part of the mosquito abatement program, he treated the pond and added about 8,000 gallons of water.

"Our main concern is the health issues with the mosquitoes," Jones said.

Now Jones has said the pond should be "fine, mosquito-wise," but there is little left for him to do.

"We can't just go onto private property," he explained. "It's just a tragedy if the fish were to die."

"Somebody should have stepped up to the plate and taken care of this property," Ty Blair said.

According to the Nye County Assessor's Office, the property is listed as being owned by TCIF REO Bar Corp.

Brent Jones contacted GMAC Mortgage to get the power turned on for one day and was told a representative would be assigned to the property.

As of yet, however, Jones has been unable to receive a response, and neither have the Blairs.

The Blairs said they believe the house has been foreclosed.

Meanwhile, the law firm of McCarthy and Holthus LLP is reportedly handling litigation involving the property. The firm refused to comment.

There is some hope for the fish, however.

If the county can get custody of the fish from the property owners, Town Manager Dave Richards said it may be able to move them to the duck pond in the Calvada Eye.

"We have a place for (the fish) to go," Richards said.

For now, a garden hose keeps the fishes' gills flapping as they swim in circles, unaware their fate lies in the realm of litigation, the banks, and the vagaries of the county's decision-makers.