When I got home this morning from dropping PLD off at the Metro, I decided to sweep up the leaves on patio. Setting the scene for those who haven’t seen it :), our apartment patio is sunken below ground level adjacent to the stairs entering the apartment building and is fairly large concrete and bricks. Currently it houses our bicycles and a hammock (the kind with a tubular frame).
I was sweeping by the bikes and moved the hammock out of the way to get at the leaves gathered beneath it when I noticed a little movement along the stairs wall. When I focused on it, I found not a leaf but a little (TINY) frog.
Knowing there’d be no way for this little guy to get out of our patio by himself, I tried to pick him up but he wouldn’t have it. He made a big hop behind the bikes. So I took the broom and moved it behind him just enough (not actually touching him–just guiding) to get him to jump a few more times and clear the bikes. When he did I went to pick him up again and he jumped the other way behind the bikes but this time all the way into the corner where he made a couple leaps at the wall and then just sat there and let me pick him up.
I cupped my hand over the top so he wouldn’t jump and fall to the patio and hurt himself and carried him over and let him out of my hand under the trees and bushes next to our patio. The cutest part of this whole thing is it was one of those “cat” frogs. The ones that don’t make a sound like “ribbit” but “mew” (like a kitten does). Every time he jumped–desperate to get out of our little brick enclosure–he “mewed” at me. After I’d set him down in the soft leaves, pine needles and dirt, I tried to pick a few of the lint fuzzies off him that he got in the corner of the patio from the dryer vents…he mewed and hopped away. It was TOO adorable!!!
A mewing frog? I didn’t know they existed. That’s trippy!
I used to play with toads when I was little. You know, capture them, keep them in a cigar box for the day, try to feed them bugs, then let them go at the end of the day. I’d pick up great big ugly warty toads with my bare hands, I didn’t care.
Cut to about 20 years later. My son was a little baby, maybe 3 months old, and he’s lying on a blanket in the middle of the floor. I pick him up and put him in his crib for a nap, then pull up the blanket he was laying on. There’s a tiny brown lump on the floor.
Now this being my second child my brain immediately went for the obvious: it’s a baby turd. Must have rolled out of his diaper. But the kid was wearing a onesie…how could that have happened?
Then the turd blinked at me.
It was a little baby toad! And the funny thing is, I couldn’t bring myself to touch it! Neither could my husband! The thing started hopping all around my apartment, and I’m like “Ack! Someone put it outside!”
I had to go recruit the neighbor girls, who were 6 and 8 years old. They had the right stuff. They caught that little blinking turd toad and sent him packing.
Awww. Baby frogs are so cute! The mewing frogs are the kind that are down here most often near where I live. This time of year there are hundreds of little frogs no bigger than my pinky nail hopping around all over the place.
when i was little, we had a screened in backyard thing. and there was a little hole in the screen. one day my little brother (he was 2 at the time) came into the house screaming “ducks! ducks!” none of us knew what he was talking about. so he dragged us to the porch and we saw that there were a bunch of tiny ducklings in the screen house, with the mother standing right outside. they were sooo cute. but we had to let them out and they kept running away. i think ducklings are much cuter than frogs (but not as cute as horses)
The only time I’ve heard of them besides seeing and hearing this little guy with my own eyes/ears was on Animal Planet. They have programs about animal rescues, and it seems some people heard a kitten mewing inside a wall where there was some small opening for some reason. The fire department was called out for the rescue and they had to make the hole considerably bigger. After a lot of searching for this kitten with a mirror and stuff, the fireman discovered a frog about the size of an apple in the wall mewing away–well, it was still an animal rescue.
This had me ROFLOL! [Wild Kingdom Narrator]We zoom in to find the blinking turd toad in its natural habitat…a baby’s blanket…[/Narrator] Thanks for the giggle!
I haven’t lost most of my boldness with animals (no matter what species). I still pick worms out of puddles after a rain storm and throw them in gross or dirt so they don’t drown. Besides, birds should have to work a little for their meals.
Good story. I can imagine you chasing around a poor defenseless frog around your patio with a broom. The poor thing. It must have been having heart palpitations. hhehehe It’s good to hear that it is still ok.
OH NO! Not the blood soaked bunnies. You know, I heard that is why the Easter Bunny delivers jelly beans. They are supposed to be sweet droplets of Jesus’s blood. I will behave. I promise. Just don’t send them to me. hehehe
Send your Easter Bunny my way, Peta…while I wait, I’ll be flipping through LOTR for the place where Samwise instructs Gollum on the fine art of cooking rabbit stew…
This story needs a disclaimer. Something like “No frogs are harmed in this story and it has a happy ending!”
Darn!! I was waiting for the part where you accidentally step on him or the part where the frog jumps down your shirt and you freak out, breaking things and knocking stuff off shelves. Or maybe where the frog bites you when you pick it up, or peas in your hand. Yeah, it could piss in your hand and just then, your SO comes over and introduces a new neighbor or somehting and you shake hands with him, forgetting you have frog piss on you. Yes! Much better!!!
Sorry… it was a good story though. Even if it was a happy one.
Usually I leave the spelling and grammar errors alone, but this one was too pretty to pass up.
Here we have a teeny, tiny little frog, which makes a sound like a * cat *, and when it relieves itself, tiny green spherical vegetables are the result.
Too funny …
BTW, I like your new sig ** Girl Next Door! ** I’m going to have to start calling myself the official sig-finder!
