Frog in the house

[Doug Houston]

This won't be anything new to loads of us here, but it was sort of a funny thing for me this last couple of days.

Living in the country affords us a lot of adventures that we miss out on, when living in the city, in subdivisions. This is one of those things. Just getting out of the shower stall yesterday morning, I saw something move, on the floor. A careful look showed a little frog. How in blazes did he get here in the bathroom? There's no entrance from outside, but there the little dickens sat. Moving something near him (her?) made him leap out of sight, but still in the bathroom. What to do with this little stinker? Well, nothing, intil I figured out some kind of strategy. Frogs aren't the easiest creatures to catch, and I didn't want to hurt the little guy, either. He has a life like I have, and I wanted to get him outside, back to where he belongs. He'd starve in the house, here. I couldn't be party to that.

Somehow, coaxed him into the shower stall, and shut the sliding doors, for the night. I hoped he wouldn't starve to death, but I had to figure out a way to get the little bum out of there, and outside. Got a grocery bag the next morning, still clad in my shorts and tee shirt, that I sleep in. Got into the shower stall, and sat on the shower chair that I use (I have an artificial leg). The little guy would leap from here to there, as I coaxed him into somewhere to catch him. Finally, in a corner, the little creature was terrified, of course, but with both hands cupped, I grabbed the little thing. He was pretty energetic, trying to leap out of my hands, and I was careful not to get too rough with him, lest I hurt him. Oh, and they're slippery as ice, I learned. But despite all that, I got him into the bag, and he'd never be able to leap out. I carried my little guest out of the house, through the garage, and out onto the lawn. All this, in my undershorts and tee shirt. You can do things like this in the country, and with nobody nearby, and all sorts of foliage, nobody can see you! I held the bag, open side downward, and patted it, to encourage the little creature to jump out, which he did, onto the lawn, hopefully among lots of insects to fill his empty little tummy. I imagine he was wondering: "Where am I....how'd I get here?"

All that process took possibly half an hour, but I hope that the little feller has gotten back into a good routine of living, and that he'll have a long and happy little life. He'll never know what a problem he was!