Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Frogs

Frogs have always kind of creeped me out, what with their warty rubbery looking skin and their weird shaped bodies and their hopping around and startling you because you weren't expecting a frog hopping around, but I've gotten to where I accept them as a startling part of nature because they do eat the bugs and whatever else can be kind of pesky in your garden.

This past summer we could sit outside and watch dozens of frogs hopping around the front yards in the early evenings, eating whatever it is they eat, and as long as you watched where you were going, they wouldn't startle you too much by hopping in front of you.

We had a couple of frogs that must have lived under our concrete slab outside the back door slider, they would come out and hop around on the concrete right by the sliding door at night, right up next to the door, and every one of our cats would go CRAZY scrabbling at the glass door wanting to GET THAT FROG. Although what they'd do with a frog once they caught it I don't know and don't ever really want to find out. It's bad enough when they catch a moth in the garage and bring that into the house.

Anyway, frogs do kind of creep me out, and when I was getting my bike out of the shed in the back yard last week I was glad I saw the frog sitting right in the middle of the yard before I stepped on it. And how come it didn't hop away and startle me as I walked by with my bike? And why was it still there in the same spot when I came back from my bike ride? Not moving and barely breathing?

I found out later when I told Keith that this frog was just sitting there. The night before he had opened the slider to put trash out, then slid the slider shut again but it didn't shut all the way because there was a frog that he squished in the door when he went to shut it, a frog that was apparently trying to hop into the house when he opened the door, a frog that the cats saw stuck in the door and all went crazy trying to get it, a frog that Keith went Agghhh when he saw it stuck in the door and flung out into the yard before the cats could get it. A frog that had been mortally wounded by the door squishing it and was laying where it was flung, not quite dead but not alive enough to hop away. So when I told him it was laying in the middle of the yard he went out and flung it into the flower bed where we wouldn't step on it trying to walk through the yard.

Now, this past Sunday it got really really windy late in the day and then started raining a pretty good rain and the wind was blowing leaves all over the place, so yesterday I was sweeping up some of the mess of leaves by the front door and I see this leaf that looks really weird and look a little closer and realize that it is not a leaf but a dead frog. Right by the front door. Agghhh. Ick. Yuk. Creepy. And what do I do with this dead frog, I don't want to just sweep in into the flower bed because then I will KNOW THAT THERE IS A DEAD FROG IN THE FLOWER BED RIGHT BY THE FRONT DOOR! so I get the dustpan and scoop it up into a plastic bag to throw into the trash, trying not to gag while doing so.

It was almost as disgusting as the time I drove home for lunch while working the overnight shift, saw a frog in the driveway and thought he would hop out of the way, but no, there is a loud POP as I drive into the driveway and drive right over the frog. So I'm out there at 2am trying to scoop a dead popped frog from the driveway into the gutter with a plastic pancake turner.

Anyway, I know frogs are our friends and eat our garden pests but they still creep me out. Especially when they are dead.

2 comments:

PussDaddy said...

OMG as a kid all I did was catch frogs and bugs and stuff. My dad would call me outside if he spotted one he thought I would like. No if you come near me with one I scream, lol.

PussDaddy

PussDaddy said...

I meant now, not no.

PussDaddy