Tuesday, September 13, 2011

A childhood memory

One of my favorite things to do when I was a kid was catch the numerous frogs, toads, and snakes that roamed our 11 acre woods. I would store them in buckets and an old plastic swimming pool that we filled with sand and water. 

I considered myself quite the frog caretaker and I knew that what I was doing was giving them a better life. Although putting snakes and frogs in the same container may have been a misstep.

One day I was watching a show on pbs. The show was discussing the life of the monarch butterfly and showed a man helping a butterfly migrate in cold weather by cupping it in his hands and gently breathing warm air on it to heat it up enough to fly. This action, I believed, saved that butterfly's life. 

Fast forward...

I was in the woods exploring on a cool fall day when I found a frog that was alive, but stiff and sluggish in the cold. 

I remembered that little nugget of information about the butterfly and I knew that I could apply the same technique to this very frog.

I would be the frog whisperer.

So I cupped my hands oh so gently around this frog and as he lay still, surely in the throes of death, I took a deep breath and exhaled a sigh of warm life giving air around him.

And that frog jumped straight into my mouth.

Several years and a lesson about amphibian hibernation later, I bred the second generation of frog torturer whisperer and have been training him in my backyard.
 He caught two yesterday without hurting either one.

I am a proud mama.

6 comments:

  1. I knew with you that post had to get funny! I seriously laughed out loud.

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  2. Ha ha ha! GROSS!
    I don't like reptiles. Amphibians I can handle, but snakes are awful.

    Remember that one time when we were playing in the woods around your house and you saw a snake right by my foot? I never even saw it! I just started running! ha ha. Good times.

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  3. Aww! Im not sure if Cardon would be interested or freaked by the site of a frog...probably a little of both.

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  4. I love it! I have been thinking a lot lately (not sure why) about my childhood in Michigan, and particularly "going frogging." There were so many great places to catch frogs around MP! I would love to take my children there and experience it with them, although that's a really expensive trip to take just to catch some frogs, don't you think?

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  5. Haha. Love the post. Thanks for the laugh. We used to catch tadpoles in the creek by our house and keep them until they became little frogs, then we set them loose. I'm sure we saved their lives too...

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  6. You are a true student of biology. We loved your experiences.

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