Friday, June 24, 2011

Ribbet

"What a silly looking cricket," I told Chienne, for I often speak rather than think, as we took our walk through our soggy neighborhood. Even the air feels heavy with moisture, ground literally squishing with saturation.

"Oh," I breathed after bending to look at the plump insect more closely. "You're a frog! Hello, baby frog!" And I grinned as it hopped away, turning to Chienne to see if she was similarly impressed. Oblivious, she continued to sniff at the tree and turned to trot off.

"Don't step on them!" I scolded, feeling protective of the adorable former tadpoles as they found their way in this small section of the world. I kept chin to chest as I watched for amphibians so as not to squish them into the hard sidewalk or soggy ground.

"Froggies..." I called softly when we walked the next day. "I would like to take a photo of you..." But they had gone overnight from ubiquitous to rare. "Where did they go?" I asked my dog. But she knew not.

And then I noticed the birds.

"Oh," I sighed, feeling ridiculous tears form. "You ate them," I accused and glared. "I'm glad my cat murdered one of you." Though I reminded myself that said incident had resulted in Sir Sprout being an inside cat only.

I finally found four of the creatures, pausing to bring my camera as close as possible and hoping the pixels arranged themselves cleanly in the shapes of the amphibious bodies. While some blurred, others allowed appreciation of tiny frog fingers and speckled frog skin.

I watched for them all week, finding only one yesterday and none this morning. As I wandered closer to the river though, I could hear their song and smiled with the hope that they remained safely hidden from predators. The food chain has always bummed me out.

  • Bird - My bathroom ceiling leaked. And it rained and rained and rained.
  • Frog! I took various meetings and was remarkably productive this week.
  • Frog! Chienne is doing well!
  • Frog! My iPad2 arrived. Oh, how I love it. Oh, how I waste time playing with it.
  • Bird - My lawn is so long. I dread mowing it.
  • Frog! I bought the cutest blue dress that matches my pretty blue flats.
So while the week was mostly unmemorable, there were some good things. And the frogs.

Godspeed, little guys.

1 comment:

suzy pepper said...

I completely adore you, you know? Really.

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