trey, sweet trey, decided that for my leapyear birthday i needed a leapfrog. he was right. the little itty bitty frog was so cute... how could anyone resist that for a pet? trey was even considerate enough to supply me with a small jar of food for the little fella. “froggy” (as named by stella) was presented to me at my leapyear dance party.

i’ve never owned a frog before (well besides the ones that used to hang out by the pond when we had one)... i’ve never even owned a fish. i’m not sure why. i’ve only owned one pet (totally considered to be my own) - and that is marley.

okay, so i got froggy on friday night. he was fine. i think he had fun at the party. he even had fun during brunch, when the guys from seattle came over to cook for us. and i fed him the dried bloodworms. he didn’t seem to be in a hurry to eat the whole bunch, but i was told that is common. so the next day (this would be sunday) same thing... i fed him the fish food... he still didn’t seem curious. so i never really knew if froggy ate anything at all. i did notice however, that his water was just a tiny bit cloudy. so i decided to change his water.

now mind you, i have never changed water before. i placed froggy into another bowl, and continued to clean out his bowl with soap and really warm water. and when i put more water into the very clean and sanitary bowl, i put warm water. i just figured froggy would like that. so then i placed froggy back into the bowl with his green pebbles and his fake vine of seaweed and watched him. he looked like he was having seizures, swimming supper fast up and down and left and right. he wouldn’t stop. ed told me to let him get used to the water for a bit, and so i did. a couple hours later, froggy seemed his old self again. just mellow... not really doing anything. a few more hours pass, and i’ve not checked on froggy. ed sees him though. he’s dead. when i walk up to the bowl, i glance at him. he’s floating... upside down. r.i.p. froggy. we tell the kids immediately, and they are fine with it. hmmm...

the next day i give dana a call... to tell her of the sad news, and i tell her that i’m trying to get a hold of trey to let him know. so this is the email that dana sent to trey:

Trey,

Marie already killed her frog.  She thinks it's the food we got her. 

She wants to talk to you.  How was the game????

trey:

   

    Hi, Marie.

    Interesting about the food. I have fed my last two DAFs FD Blood worms. This

    one has lived for two years now. There may be another explanation. I did

    rinse the marbles, tanks, and plastic plant. However, I did it rather

    quickly. It may not have been adequate.

    Are you going to be around tonight? I can bring one of his brothers by for

    you.

    T

so anyway, i don’t know if it was the fish food or the change of water... maybe a little bit of both? well, regardless, froggy died on sunday. and trey did end up bringing one of his brothers by... a sister, actually. stella named her amadala (yes, after the star wars queen). i thought the name was perfect. i thought to myslef, “sweet! this frog is a winner. this frog is named after a queen!”

not so. this frog was weird. i would occasionally check it out, and it looked like it was self-destructive. it would beat itself against the green marbles at the bottom of the bowl. i just excused it as playing. but it would do that often. so again, i fed it the fish flakes. and it lived passed the two day mark (the mark that froggy made it to). and i was hopeful. well, on the fourth day, i couldn’t find her. i picked the bowl up and swished the water around, and still, there was no sign of her. and then i looked on the bottom of the bowl. there she was.

amadala had managed to find her way through about seven or eight layers of the green marbles, only to get stuck underneath them. i don’t know how long she had been there, but it was another frog lost... in one week. i really am not a frog person.

needless to say, i am done with frogs. maybe i’ll try goldfish.