The return of Leapy

Night 1
I picked up crickets at Fin and Feather in the hopes that new food would lure Leapy back. I put a few crickets in the aquarium and put the rest in the cricket keeper, which sits on the dresser next to the aquarium. The next morning, the cricket keeper was on the floor. I had visions of Leapy lurking somewhere around the dresser, waiting for me to turn off the IKEA seahorse light, and then climbing back up to solve the puzzle of getting crickets. She's crafty, this frog.

Night 2
I stopped in the room to check on Banana before I went to sleep--far too late, as usual. At a glance at the floor, I saw a hunched lump that did not belong with the rest of the toys. She struggled a bit when I picked her up and tried to climb my arm rather than go back in the aquarium. Nonetheless, she did go back, and when Banana woke up this morning, she was ecstatic. Leapy was also quite tame and did not try to escape. Still, the screen atop her aquarium will remain weighted.

UPDATE...
Never forget to put the weights atop the screen. The frog will escape again. And she has. Oy.

She's crafty, that frog.

This morning, Banana came to me and said that Leapy wasn't in her cage. I was incredulous at first, particularly since the kid has developed a penchant for saying things like "Fooled you" lately. When she did, in fact, show me Leapy's aquarium, it was clear that there was no frog. Not in the waterfall. Not in the corner. Not in the nooks of her log. There was no frog.

Upon further investigation, there was a trace of her next to the cricket cage--a frog pellet, if you will. Clearly she had somehow pushed the screen up enough to get out, landed near the cricket keeper and moved on somewhere else. We continued to look for her, but turned nothing up. I'm going to buy crickets this afternoon in the hopes that a new supply will bring her back to the cricket cage.

Banana has already begun to move on. If Leapy doesn't come back, she wants a pet that won't try to escape. I'm pretty sure it hasn't occurred to her yet that a disappeared Leapy means an animal hiding somewhere in the house. Will we find her by smell if the crickets don't work, or will we wake one morning to find her hugging a corner wall?

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a random return while we're both away today.

Leapy

So the treefrog has been hanging out with Banana a great deal lately. She seems to like it--the frog, that is. Yesterday, when I came in the room she looked up from her perch on Banana's arm and proceeded to climb towards me. Then she climbed on my arm and hunkered down. It was odd and endearing.

Apparently Leapy has decided that she is part of the family.

tree frogs

This is Leapy. She is a remarkably sociable tree frog.



She is perfectly content to hang out on Banana's arm, climb in the dollhouse, and say hello to visitors. She is not currently allowed in eating areas, but she spent a brief time in the kitchen yesterday watching the final preparations of a late dinner. (Summer seems to be the time for slipping bedtimes and later-than-usual meals.) Leapy likes to sit on or in her log, likes to cling to the tank near the light where she turns a bright shade of green, and spends part of her evenings sitting in the waterfall basin. She is not as voracious as the praying mantis in a nearby cage, but she does take care of crickets pretty handily. I'm sure she would like a tank-mate, but I'm not ready to take that step yet.

A Treefrog

Yesterday, I fulfilled my promise of Banana's birthday present--a new pet. Her first ideas were kittens and puppies. Those wouldn't do right now--a kitten because I'm not a cat person, and a puppy because I can't handle adding another mouth and set of vet bills to the mix. Failing that, she settled for a turtle. Then she changed her mind. She wanted a frog. Call it the Hopper Effect. Since frogs seem fairly low maintenance, I was okay with the idea.

The salesperson at PetSmart (the gender-neutral reference is essential, because I'm honestly not sure what this person's story was) gave me the rundown on what we would need to take care of a treefrog:

• 10 gal. aquarium $10


• screen $10


• clip-on light and bulb $10


• sediment for the bottom $10


• hiding place--in the case of a treefrog this also meant a climbing tree $15


• watering dish--opted to solve this with a waterfall $42


• crickets $2


• treefrog $18

This made for a rather pricey birthday present, but I'd made the promise. And the thing actually seemed kind of cool.

We are one day in now, and the frog still seems cool. It is named Leapy. Leapy has a voracious appetite for crickets. Leapy also needs a damper base than she (we know the gender) has. These facts mean that we will make another trip to PetSmart tomorrow for more crickets and a mister to dampen the aquarium.

Banana is overjoyed. Pictures will be forthcoming.

dead frog baby

Banana came back from her weekend with Mommy with two baby frogs in tow. They were tiny, maybe the size of small crickets, and she'd found them on the ground just after they left the water at a state park south of town.

The frogs came home with us. Banana put a home together for them in one of her many bug and animal containers. The home consisted of a few rocks, some dirt, and a small lid full of water. The frogs hopped around, and I suggested to Anna that she probably should leave them alone.

Fastforward two days. Anna came to get me after my shower this morning to ask wheterh the frog stretched out in the small lid of water was sleeping or dead. "Sleeping," she thought. But I said it probably just hadn't been able to make it. Meanwhile, the other one seems strong, almost feisty. Banana has decided this is the girl-frog--the frogs were indistinguishable to my eye, but almost-five year-olds see remarkable things.