On our way home from camping, we stopped to rescue some tadpoles.  I wasn’t too keen on the idea, but thought it would be fun for Billy.  The tadpoles made it home from Shenandoah and were promptly placed in a plastic container with some rocks.  Their home was nice and cozy on our porch.  We would give them dog food to eat and they would devour it.  It became a habit for us to check on the frogs every morning and every evening. Billy loved checking on them and making sure they were all still swimming.  Who knew having tadpoles could be so much fun.  I think there were about 15 tadpoles that made it down the mountain. Nature can be cruel and our tadpole numbers dwindled, but not too much.  We finally decided we needed to give them a proper home.  The tadpoles weren’t tadpoles anymore. They were frogs!  We weren’t sure were to put them and then decided on a small lake that is in the back of a church that is down the road from our house.  It’s small enough that the frogs will probably be happy there.  Okay so now we have a place for them to go, but how do we get them out?  That was the fun part. We got a plastic tub and quickly tried to put them in the container before they hopped out.  Sensing freedom, they all wanted to jump and they did.  Some of our frogs still had their tails, but we knew it was time to let them go.  I think we had about twelve frogs that made it to the lake.  It’s funny how at first the whole tadpole idea didn’t seem that great to me. I guess I was just thinking what are we going to do with them, but in the end it was a lot of fun.  Every time I pass that little lake, I wonder how the frogs are and how big they have gotten.  The Shenandoah frogs have a special place in my heart. 

(Thanks, Etta, for being an animal lover of all creatures, great and small.)