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.