Bye, Bye Froggies

The family pet tally is now down by 7 frogs. But, before you break out the tissues, let me assure you that they are well and happy. At least they were well and happy at 8:15 this morning. That was when M. released them back into the pond where she had scooped them up as tadpoles and brought them home. This is the second time we've had the opportunity to watch the transformation process and it remains miraculous. Bullfrog tadpoles are quite large, but by the time they metamorphose into frogs they are pretty little...so 7 of them can fit into a 10 gallon tank. But they grow and the bullfrogs were running out of room. There was also the whole issue of feeding them. They enjoy live food. M. started out feeding them crickets, but that was getting expensive and causing her to run to the pet store every few days because crickets don't live all that long even if they haven't been fed to a frog. So she turned to meal worms. This explains why 1000 mealworms were delivered to our house by the FedEx man one morning. It was a suprisingly small box considering the number of wiggly things which were in there. Lest you think I win the "understanding mom of the year" award, let me tell you that I drew the line at the cockroaches she really wanted to order. And to continue with the whole food supply issue, if she had kept them, they can grow quite large (~10 inches) and need a correspondingly larger menu. I'm informed that they eat "pinkies" (for those who know what these are, enough said, for those who don't, really, I think you're happier than if I told you.) So, although the bullfrogs were fun to look at and watch flop about their tank everytime they were startled, I'm just as happy that they are now independently supplying their own food.