freedom for the frogs

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When you decide to move to China, you have to figure out to do with your pets. We are not pet people (well, Mark and I aren't). Nathan is a pet person. He has a lot of Aunt Laura in him. We have 3 water frogs and 1 beta fish. Lily and Bella are going to take Buddy, the beta fish. The frogs are a little more complicated. We talked about giving them away, but Nathan seemed uncomfortable with that plan. We've had them for over a year...grew them from tadpoles we ordered online. They grew bigger and bigger, and we decided they would be happier free with more space and possibly some new frog friends. Coincidentally, we recently watched the movie "Free Willy" about a boy who befriends a whale at the aquatic park and eventually helps to release Willy back into the ocean. Great movie.

I have been trying to find a good place to release Frog 1, Frog 2 and Frog 3. There are rules about such things, but I decided it would be okay to let 3 small water frogs go free in a pond with other frogs and fish and nature type creatures. There's this pretty rowing center in Skokie. They have a boat launch, so you can get right down to the water's edge. Nobody is there during the week, so a Wednesday morning was the perfect time for Operation Free the Frogs. Today happens to be perfect weather-wise. Sunny and not too hot. I want the memory of this day to be a pleasant one, so I checked the weather before we made the plan.

Nathan and I put the frogs in a glass jar, drove over there after dropping Emily off at camp (less drama with less frog release team members). When we arrived, we scoped out the area first--walked down to the water and saw a bunch of tadpoles swimming around near the edge! Good sign. I ran back to the car and got the jar (I put it in a covert Strawberry Shortcake tote bag of Emily's I had in the car) and returned to Nathan by the water. We said a few words about how we'd miss the frogs, hoped they'd be happier free and we poured the jar into the water. The 3 frogs were gone so fast, we almost missed it, but we did see them swimming off into the distance. A very happy ending.

I decided we should do this sooner rather than right before the move. I wanted to put some distance between the event and our move. Hopefully that was the right decision. We immediately went to the toy store and acquired a Webkinz (a stuffed animal you can register and play with online...now that's my kind of pet!) Bribes and distractions. The secrets to successful parenting. Oh and now we are heading out to lunch. Nathan needs comfort food so we're going to get him a big cheeseburger.

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Comments

[Dad]

Back to the wild
I'm reminded of a similar problem when Suzanne and Laura were a bit older than Nathan and Emily. This problem involved a pet bunny and a pet something (gerbil or hamster). They had been living together in a backyard cage eating this and that. We decided it was time to free them. However, I was not nearly as thoughtful as Suzanne. I just took them out to a woodsy area and said: BYE BYE!! My thought at the time was they might make a tasty fox/wolf-treat? Not exactly the Free Willy concept,huh.

[soooze]

it was a guinea pig...
It was my guinea pig in fact! Still can't believe I had a pet by choice...but I know I was always trying to be just like my big sister...pierced ears, sure! Pets, sure!

[Linda]

Operation Frog Release
Wow, Suzanne, I'm really impressed. When I reached "less drama with less frog release team members", I knew I was hearing from an expert at this. Nice goin', right up to the cheeseburger!