We have many residential frogs in our back porch area this summer. More specifically, this blog post is about our pool frogs. Seems they'd only visited after dusk and stayed all night skinny-dipping in our pool. I confess, I am a frog buff. If you could look through the photos on my computer, you'd see a lot of frog photos. We have to have at least six different kinds of frogs that call our address their own, and I love every one of them! We have barking tree frogs, squirrel tree frogs, spring peepers, and many others.
However, these special babies seem to be your typical Bullfrogs,
rana catesbeiana. Our largest one was about 7 inches from nose to rear when squatting. But if you stretched that sucker out, you'd have a good 12 inches of ribbit! The smaller one was only about 5 inches long.
Every night before bed, I'd check to see if the frogs were there. They rarely missed a night. And every morning they'd head back for their hiding place, presumably under the deck, around 6:45 am. I'd always try to get up early enough to check on them. Sometimes I'd see one on the edge of the pool waiting for the other one to jump out. And as soon as the second frog got close enough to the edge, the first one would pounce back in to drive the second one away. I am sure they were not friends. The usually kept at different ends of the pool. On some mornings I loved to scare them back into the pool and make them hang around a little longer. I'm sure they found me quite irritating!
Well, we finally covered the pool a couple weeks ago, and the first night without pool water, the smaller of the two showed up and looked confused as he hopped onto the pool cover and didn't get wet. I went out to pester him, and he hopped away so fast I couldn't catch him. I was very eager to get my first grab on one of those frogs!
The second night with the pool covered, Mr./Mrs. Big showed up. The poor frog found the un-wet pool equally confusing, but because of his/her large size, hopping was a little sloppier. I was able to route the frog to one side of the pool and as he struggle to get up the slope of the pool cover, I pounced! I caught the frog!
Of course, I had to call the kids out, and they finally got their first taste (okay, slight pun intended) of frog. Merrilee and Jacob were eager to hold it and I had to show them how to do it without 1) hurting the frog, and 2) getting peed on. All went well, and everyone was excited.
That is, until it was Katie Mei's turn to hold the frog.
She just isn't quite into critters as much as the rest of us. She was hesitant at first, and would venture one finger forward for a touch. But when I urged her to hold out her hands to grasp the frog, she was unwilling. I'm not really one to let my kids be squirmy about picking up harmless creatures, and I insisted that she would hold the frog whether she wanted to or not.
After much coaxing and guidance, she finally held the frog, but it was not something she was enjoying. And all jokes regarding kissing the frog were beyond acceptable. We had to settle for just having her hold it for a few seconds.
I LOVE the expression on the frog's face in this photo! Click on it to see it up close if you can. Apparently he was enjoying the moment as much as Katie Mei was!
Anyway, that is my beloved frog. I'm so glad Jay took photos for me.
The two frogs came back one more time before they finally gave up hope of bathing in my pool again. I assume they're now safely tucked away under the porch and hunkered down for colder weather.
Wishing them both well until next spring, when I hope they venture forth once again. But hopefully not with lots of babies to share the pool!
