Frog On The Loose!

Ah!!!! There's a frog loose in my house and I can't find him!!!! If you see the above frog, please return him to the original owner!!!!

I'm back now. Mission accomplished...but what a wild one. I cleaned out the frog's and the tadpoles' aquariums this afternoon. When I do that, I typically put them in bowls with fresh water and food for a while. Scott is at the athletic club working out. I've been doing laundry and browsing for hats on the Internet. I went into the kitchen to get something for Audra and glanced over at their bowls. The frog's was empty!!! Apparently, he learned how to jump! Frogs do that.

"Oh, my gosh! Titus the frog jumped out of his bowl. He is in the house somewhere. I need you to help me find him!" I panicked.

"Mom, the Shavers don't say 'Oh, my gosh.'" Titus corrected.

"Right. Oh, my gosh! Oh, my gosh! AUDRA, COME HELP US FIND THE FROG," I called out.

I began looking all over the kitchen trying not to imagine the worst possible scenario. Sink? No. Garbage disposal? No. Swan dive off the counter? Don't seem him on the floor.

There he was chilling 6 inches away from his bowl under the lid of his aquarium. He was as still as a statue. Now the real problem. How do I get him back into the aquarium? I touched his hind end with my scoop. He LEAPED about 8 inches. The surprise of it forced out an involuntary, "AAAAAHHHHH!" from me.

"Titus, will you come pick up the frog and put him back in his aquarium.?" I persuaded.

"Um," I could see the mental processing through his eyes. I don't think the fact that I screamed when I touched it is going to help my cause. "No thanks, Mom" he decided.

"Did you know that tree frogs have sticky fingers so they can climb trees?" he informed. "Plus, frogs are scared of people." Oh, yeah. Just like lizards.

Jump. Jump. JUUUUUUUUUUMP. The frog dove off of the counter top onto the floor in an effort to escape me.

jump. stumble. jump. across the kitchen floor.

"Audra, come help me get this frog back in his aquarium. Just pick him up and put him back in," I coaxed.

"OK, how do I do that?" She answered without hesitation.

"I don't know. Just grab it, maybe." She became a little more hesitant.

"I know!" She answered and went to grab the net out of the sink.

"Good idea!" I answered. "I'll hold the net and you get him to jump into it."

She looked right at the frog and commanded, "Jumpity, jump, jump!"

I burst out laughing. She tried again, "Frog, will you please jump into the net?" She seemed a little confused. It works in her Frog and Toad books. It works when she plays pretend. Why isn't it working now?

I began to weigh the cost versus reward of trying to pick up the frog with my bare hands and feel him wriggle inside. Hmm.

In the moment of great conflict I did the obvious: I grabbed my camera. I took a few shots and then it occurred to me to grab a magazine and try to get him to hop onto it so I could lift him to safety. After a couple of tries, it worked. He is currently hiding from all of us under his rock. By the way, he isn't nearly as big or scary as the picture makes him look. He's only about 1 1/4 inches long and really very cute...unless you are debating whether or not to pick him up.