Tadpole/Froggy – Episode 4
Here are the previous episodes of Miss Tad’s life:
While I wanted to wait another week to bring you the final episode of Miss Tad’s life, she had other plans. Just 24 hours after we took the pictures on Saturday night for Episode 3, her tail had shortened by more than half of its length.
Here she is half out of the water resting on an oyster shell.
And her mouth had doubled in size.
This was on Sunday night. She was no longer eating algae or plants and I knew she must be nearly ready for more substantial food – bugs. I did some research and found that meal-worms or aphids were a good food source, but I don’t have either and am an hour from the nearest pet store. There are plenty of big bugs in our yard, but teeny weeny bugs are what she needs.
Look how small she is. This is the tip of a pencil next to her.
By Monday morning her tail had decreased by half again and she was doing some frantic laps around the top of her little aquarium. Not sure when she would start eating bugs and afraid of her going hungry, we decided to take her back to the pond where we got her.
Harland and I threw ourselves on the floor and cried.
Kitty stood by and said, “What am I, chopped liver? I thought I was your favorite pet!”
So we got off the floor, netted Miss Froggy, put her in a little container with water and carried her across the road to the pond. Once there, I tipped her container out at the pond’s edge. She swam out into the weeds and thought to herself,
“Whoa ….. this is what a call a BIG aquarium!”
I tried to get a pic of her, but she swam quickly away with her froggy legs deeper into the weeds.
“No way woman, you’ve taken enough pictures of me! I want a more secluded private life away from the paparazzi.”
There are no fish in the pond to eat her and there are plenty of bugs there. She looks like some sort of tree-frog to me, and there’s a wooded area right near the pond, so when she’s ready to take to the trees, they’ll be there for her.
Her little aquarium looks very empty now. But we know she’s better off and partying with the other frogs over at the pond.
And hopefully next spring she will add her voice to the annual froggy chorus.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
————> Thursday: A bison herd on the prairie, including a little bison calf. Up close and personal. (Maybe a little too close.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[ad name=”Google Adsense”]
Aw…froggy grew so fast!! That was such a neat post..all 4 episodes! I am just amazed at how fast she had changed! I know it must have been sad to see her go…but Kitty is probably happy that she is #1 again! LOL
I had watched tadpoles grow into frogs as a kid, and even I was surprised by how fast this one grew up.
I didn’t realize she/he was so tiny! Maybe you need a nice goldfish for your aquarium…just sayin’. That way you will have a new baby and Miss Kitty will have a friend to watch and hopefully not eat while you are at work.
Tiny! Thanks for all the photos. Fun to watch.
How amazing. Their rate of growth rivals that of our ducklings! 🙂 The shot with the tip of the pencil is cool.
Thanks for the update of miss tadpole that’s now a frog. Cute. I remember watching them when I was growing up. :0} I’m sure she had fun at your house!
Tree Frogs are nifty with their suction cup feet. And they are really loud. At our cabin in N. Michigan, we
heard a very LOUD noise coming from the direction of the kitchen. Nothing inside, but when we checked outside, there in the vent fan opening was the tiny Tree Frog with the big voice. We could hardly believe something so small was making all that racket.
Aren’t they amazing how loud they are. Back when they were all singing at the pond, I thought I was going to go deaf.
I love tree frogs, their so cute, your frog is so cute, must be a tree frog. I had one as a pet when I was around 12 and I had it living in the rose bush. Every day for about 2 weeks it would come out to see me after I got home from school. Sooo cute.
P.S. Thats amazing about their tails. Thanks for the answering my comment yesterday.
I’m reminded of the old Andy Griffith show when Ope had raised a baby bird and they released her into the neighborhood. Ope said (something like), “Pa, her cage is so empty.” and Andy said, “Yeah, but don’t the trees seem full.” Congrats on raising an independent and secure little Froggy!
Tee hee. I hope she is “independent and secure”. We did our best by her. 🙂
So cool to see her go through all those changes!
I still can’t believe how fast she grew, even though I was there for it. An amazing part of nature.