Frogs & Dogs

I caught a frog on Saturday, much to the delighted horror of my six year old neighbor. She shriek with girly horror at it as our dogs tried to snuffle it out of existence. It all started with Maddie, the 80 pound puppy going berserk at the kiddie wading pool we had out for the dogs. Neither dog really use the pool for anything other than a quick drink. She was in full hunt mode. Dee and I were talking, we couldn’t figure out what Maddie was going nuts over. So we went over to investigate.

Swimming frantically around the pool, hiding under various dog toys was a small frog. Feeling sorry for the poor frog I swooped in a picked up the poor frog. I’m not sure who was more surprised, the dog, the frog, the neighbors or me. But the frog was cupped in the safety of my hand the dogs were frantically circling the frogless pool and my neighbor was laughing like a loon.

Gently, I uncupped my hands and looked at the frog. The frog looked at me with it’s dark amber eyes, unsure of its new circumstances, it’s current position gave it no place to jump. Playfully I pursed my lips and got ready to kiss the frog, one never knew when a frog could turn into a prince. My neighbors all shrieked with laughter and I think I saw the frog flinch. Just for the record no lips touched any amphibian, but it was worth the reaction.

I went to put the frog in a quiet part of the back yard, when the dogs realized that I had the frog, and I had put the frog down. Now in the dogs defense, neither one had ever seen a frog. They had no desire to harm it in anyway. They just wanted to see what it was. And in doggy fashion, that meant a lot of sniffing, and an occasional paw of death. Frogs are hardy, but not that hardy.

Once more, I swooped in and picked up the frog, went over to the dog dish and rinsed him off to revive him. Looked at the dogs and said “SIT”. They both sat, anticipating a treat, not realizing that I was heading for the back gate to liberate the frog on the other side where it could find another place to live without the interference of the dogs.

End of the story, the frog hopped off into the world and the dogs spent the rest of the afternoon following its really convoluted trail through the yard. The frog knew when to get out of Dodge.