A couple of months ago, we were invited to a “Tadpole Rescue” at Heather’s house.

We came home with 1000’s 100’s of tadpoles.

Every day or so we would check on them to see if anything was going on.† One by one by one they died.† Until we had 5 left.† Then, a couple of them developed legs and we were so excited!!† Last week I was showing one of the neighborhood kids their progress and there was a little bitty frog.† We were all jumping up and down and shouting, [easily amused, remember?]† Kei †was so happy.† She has ALWAYS wanted a dog or cat, but HEY! A frog will work just fine, thankyouverymuch.

We got one of Kei’s bug holders and put it in there with some water.† Kei named her Lillian and for the next few days she was besotted over this froggie!† She enlisted the neighborhood kids to find flies for her.† Yes there was a sandwich bag filled with dead flies on my patio.

Then, we woke up and could not find Lillian.† She was not in her container.† Now there was no way that I could see for her to get out so I searched that sucker for 30 minutes.† We took out the rock and the water, no Lillian.† Kei was devastated.† She insisted that I immediately say a prayer for Lillian which I did.† She searched all over the house for this frog that is probably Ω” long.

It was Sunday morning when we made the discovery of Lillian’s strange disappearance and Kei said she was going to ask her Kid’s Church teacher to pray for Lillian. †When I got her after church she was outraged.† I asked her what happened and she said, “I told the teacher and she said, “You can get another frog”. As if!!† I tried not to laugh and told her we still have 4 tadpoles to watch for.

Well after we got home from Daddy’s, Kei was picking up the container to do something with it and she started screaming, “Lillian is back, Lillian is back!!”† That dang frog was in the container!!† I still don’t know where she was hiding.

So now, we have a pet frog.† And Kei loves her.† I mean, LOVES her.† She took her outside today to get her ‘exercise’.† Good grief!† She just came in and said,† “Lillian is probably one of the smartest frogs ever! ” Then she proceded to tell me about Lillian jumping over a blade of grass she put in the container.† She is trying to teach the frog to be a high jumper!!!† She will be world famous!† The Jumping Frog of Morgan County!

Little things mean a lot when you are 9.† I wish we could all hang onto that magic longer…

Thanks Heather!