Frog Hunting!

I know, isn’t the title awesome? I LOVE frogs! They are...well, they’re...just...ah... Hmm. It seems frogs are so amazing it is hard to even explain it! They are just...well...WONDERFUL! I would say ‘cute’ but I think some people would then beg to differ (but I still think they are!) I don’t know exactly what it is about frogs that is so attracting for me but they ARE. I find them absolutely fascinating. Maybe it is the way they live in water like fish but you can hold them and squeeze them and call them George with out accidentally suffocating them (well, sometimes.) I’m not sure why, but I like frogs.

So, naturally, I went frog hunting when three of my male cousins, my brother, younger sister and I went to the creek. It all started with cleaning the yard. I guess that sounds slightly strange in a ‘Frog Hunting’ blog but it is true! Before we could go to the creek my cousins (Cousin A, Cousin B #1, and Cousin B #2,), my sister (Jules) and my brother (Peter) had to do some yard work for my mom. You know: mow the lawn, move some wood, pick up trash...so on and so on and so on and so forth. When Jules and cousin B #2 (who is Jules’ age) claimed to be ‘done’, I was sent to inspect. I’m very good at inspecting. In fact, I’m so good at it that my siblings came up with a saying: ‘WWMS’ which, being translated is ‘What Would Mandy See?’ I’m not sure what planet my dear sister and Cousin B #2 were on but it wasn’t the same one I was on! I quickly put them back in order and gave directions to the moving of various pieces of wood and trash pieces.

And that is where the mention of the creek comes into play. Mom had already told them they could go when they were done. Everyone else had already finished their chores and were waiting on Cousin B #2 and Jules, both of which were giving me murderous glances and complaining of the heat as they did the chores I set forth for them to do. To tell you the truth, I felt sorry for them and would have gladly let them go but for the fact that it really did need done – desperately. There was nothing for it! They would have to clean it.

But, FINALLY, they were done and we all dashed inside to...eat lunch. Nope, still no creek. Food had to be eaten first (but I notice that no one was giving me evil glares when I told them to eat!) And THEN we were off to the creek! Our swimming holes aren’t far from the house (half a mile at the most) and when you ride bikes it takes no time at all. The first thing we did was get wet and swim for awhile, look at the creek bottom with goggles and such (we even dunked each other a bit) and then Cousin A (who is my age) told me to go hunt frogs with him. We were off. We found some right away, the place being crawling with them, but catching them was going to prove not to be easy! Oh no, definitely not. Frogs are slippery, cunning...and GREAT swimmers. Your only hope is to get one on the land. Cousin A spotted one and crouched down very slowly. Slowly, slowly, slowly....DIVE! GRAB! And he had it. And then... he didn’t have it. Gone, slipped right out of his fingers. Gone forever into the water and mud and grass (which, you may be interested to know, was above our heads it was so tall).

Oh well, time to try again! Up and down and around we went. Sometimes we’d see them go under rocks and think we’d have them, just to find they’d escaped by means unknown to anyone but the frog kind! And there was the dog, running up and down, making enough noise to scare away a herd of elephants. My bare feet (yes, indeed, they were bare) dug delightfully into the mud. It really is a very good feeling. I know, some of you are now screaming, “EWWWW!” but you really should try it!

I was the first to catch one, but I also have years of experience in frog hunting. It was a rather small frog and I decided to call it Buddy, because I could. A little while later Cousin A caught one, which he gave to me to hold (he is always passing me things to hold for reasons unknown to me.) So there I was, a frog in each hand, walking up and down and up and down and over and under the whole creek with one frog in each hand and likely smiling a little crazily. It really was very fun!

Then I got lost from my group of cousins and siblings. I was told by one set that another set was farther up creek (yes, creek, not river) and so I headed that way on the path (thinking to myself, “It is easier to travel by path than creek,”) and somehow managed to go AROUND my cousins and get too far up creek. So, this time I thought, “Well, they surely can’t be very far down river and I’ll just go that way this time.” BIG mistake. There was a huge fallen tree (yes, it was a TREE not a LOG) and it had dead branches sticking up everywhere all poky and stuff. So, I decided to myself to just climb up on the bank and go around it. NOT a good plan! The bank was on a very steep hill that was covered in trees and scratchy grass and ROSE BUSHES. Have you ever seen a rose bush? Spikes, thorns, things that scrap your legs and cut your bare feet (actually, my feet did not get cut, I have very tough ones) and are very terrible to walk through. And you must keep in mind that I had a frog in each hand that were squeaking at me in the most betrayed, injured squeaks imaginable!

But, finally, after much maneuvering, I found my way back to the creek and, finally, to my cousins who were playing with their frogs in the creek. All in all, it was a pretty good day! :)