Summer of the Frogs

Animals have always been a part of our life as a family. I was in grad school when the kids were little, and yes, occasionally lab animals followed me home. We had the leopard gecko for nine years, the chinchilla for sixteen. Along the way there were also hedgehogs (on clearance at the pet store) a stray iguana who's been with us for 7 years now, and we've always had dogs. We're that family, the ones who don't kill spiders and stop the car to chase turtles out of the road. Which brings me to today's story.

A couple years ago, I came to the conclusion that we would likely never be able to afford an in-ground pool. Since I love to swim, the spouse caved in and bought me one of those pools with the inflatable ring at the top. It wasn't a great pool, but it was something, and the kids and I used it a lot. (This would be while they were in high school.) Last year, with the deck lost to new construction, we didn't put the pool up, but this year, despite not having rebuilt the deck yet, we did.

Or tried to, anyway.

Seems the pool had gotten damaged in the garage, and after a couple days, about half the water had leaked out. We were going to take it down and toss it when we noticed tadpoles. Hundreds of them. The offspring (and to be honest, us as well) couldn't destroy the habitat and catching them to release elsewhere would have been a monumental undertaking. So all summer, we've had a mostly-dead pool in the back yard. Because that's how we roll around here. Talk to us about the endangered butterflies we've found in our unweeded garden. :)

Today, however, we noticed that all the tadpoles had become frogs. The remaining ones were chased into the bushes and the pool is being drained, to go out for the garbage truck come Tuesday. The summer of the frogs has officially come to an end.

Well, that was my excitement for the weekend. Catch me tomorrow at Naughty Author Chicks, and stop back here Friday for a visit with one of my favorite author-peoples, Berengaria Brown. Have a great, frogless week!