Being a home schooling family, we are always looking for ways to expand the minds of the students in our house. I, as the teacher, try to make things as exciting and fun as possible. So when I read an ad in a magazine for a science project that sounded interesting, I ordered it. It was called �Grow a Frog�. We have many animals in our house, so I thought this was a good way to illustrate metamorphosis. I sent in my coupon for the tadpole, put water in the little plastic �house� with its lid, and we watched the creature grow. There was one thing I hadn�t counted on. When the project was over, I was stuck with a three-inch long, fat, beady-eyed aquatic African frog that could win any �Ugly Pet Contest�, webbed hands down! And to make matters worse, we were on the company�s mailing list. We kept getting mail, addressed to the children, telling them how much their frog needed a �frog friend�. The children started a campaign telling me how lonely he was, so we somehow ended up with two of these horribly ugly things.
Feeding Hoover and Kirby eventually fell to me. They were named after vacuum cleaners, and very appropriately so, I might add. They would swim around their small tank sweeping their stubby webbed fingers towards their mouths, taking in anything even halfway edible. They ate small pieces of liver, and they would lurk motionless at the bottom of their tank till I opened the lid. When my hand neared the water, they would leap up with lightning speed, mouths open wide, and grab the food from me. Needless to say that made me nervous! A few times they even missed the offered liver and latched onto my finger instead. I was glad they had no teeth.
I kept the small tank on a shelf in our schoolroom, and I had to be diligent to keep the lid closed, or the frogs would decide to go exploring and jump out occasionally. On one particular day during school, I had forgotten to feed the creatures. One of the children volunteered to do it for me, and we went on with school. I thought no more of it until later. I noticed the cat sitting in the bay window with an intense look on her face. She was crouching low, her body tense and about to spring at something. I followed her gaze and saw that the lid was off the frog tank, and one of the frogs was swimming up close to the top, checking out this new turn of events. I told one of the children to put the lid back on ... fast!
They were not fast enough. At just that moment the frog sank down in the tank, pushed off the bottom, and launched itself out onto the floor like a fat, soggy cannon ball. It landed with a �splat�. The cat didn�t fail to notice either. She gathered her legs under her to spring into action, and I jumped to intercept her. She was in mid air when I caught her by the scruff of her neck, all the while I was yelling �Someone get that frog!!� Meanwhile the cat, indignant and startled, proceeded to draw blood from my arm in deep scratches, wanting me to let her go. One child made a dive for the frog, missing only by a hair�s breadth as it leapt in a wide arch underneath the table. Another child yelled �I got it!!� and it easily escaped him too. I tossed the cat out the door, shutting it behind her and turned to join in the chase. First the frog landed on a chair. Next a child bumped his head under the table trying to capture the escapee. I tried to catch it as it bounced by and ended up landing flat on my stomach. The clamor we were making drew the attention of the other children upstairs that came down to help. Soon there were 6 children and one very frazzled mother chasing this bouncing, ugly frog all over the room. I think that frog had a smile on its face and thumbed its nose at me. We made so much noise that the family dogs came in to see what was going on. It was not a very large room either. There were six kids, one adult, two shelties, and one freedom-drunk frog leaping in zigzag patterns all over the room. School papers and books were knocked off the table. Pens rolled onto the floor. I made one last dive at the speedy frog, but the dog happened to walk in front of me at just that moment. I bumped her, causing her to lose her footing, and she sat down.. ON the frog. When she got up to walk away, the frog was gone! I could not find it anywhere. We looked in the chairs. We looked in every corner. I was mystified. Then a thought occurred to me and I called the dog. Sure enough, trapped in the dog�s long flowing hair, Hoover was stuck like a fly on flypaper. I peeled his fat, wet body off her tail and deposited him back in his tank, closing the lid tightly. I could have sworn I heard him mumble... �Next time....� as he sank to the bottom... |
