Freddie the Frog

Whilst relating my stick insect experiences of my childhood, I was reminded of a very sad story, also from my childhood. Tissues ready? Let's begin:-

When I was about 11 years old, I decided to raise the perfect frog in idyllic circumstances. I took one frogspawn egg from the millions that could be found around here in those days, and put it in a jam jar with clean sand on the bottom and a bit of pond weed. The tadpole hatched, thrived, and I transferred it to a goldfish tank which was also the picture of idyll and I named him Freddie. When he started to grow into a froglet I built up a mountain of stones so that he could climb out of the water when he wanted to into the air.

Not long after Freddie grew all his little legs, I returned home from school, went to my bedroom and looked in the fishtank. No Freddie. I searched my bedroom - no Freddie. I took off my shoes - and there was Freddie, flat as a postage stamp on the sole of my shoe    Oh the irony.

Oh, no! I bet you were so upset!   Poor Freddie!

There has to be lesson in there somewhere. RIP Freddie.

Aww! Poor Freddie! And poor you - that must have been horrible!

Yes there is a lesson there Shisa - don't try to raise a frog in your bedroom, it's not his natural habitat!

 I'm sure if we gave this to some Psych students they would find some Freudian metaphor in there.

LyndaW wrote:Yes there is a lesson there Shisa - don't try to raise a frog in your bedroom, it's not his natural habitat!

Shisa wrote: I'm sure if we gave this to some Psych students they would find some Freudian metaphor in there.

   

Oh no, poor Freddie and you.
We done that when I was young with frogs and newts. I loved seeing them develope into tiny little frogs. That was the 70's and I'm not sure if it's illegal to collect it now.

Oh you're probably correct Caroline, most things are illegal these days!   

Poor Freddie.... &you! I love frogs till this very day. Mum has 2 that live in an urn. She put rocks in it so they can climb out when it rains. Its a big urn.... no way I'd lift it!

I also had a frog as a child, I bought it home after playing in the dam one day. Had him for ages...he never had a name bar, froggie. Mum made me let him go back to the same dam. I was heart broken to let him go. But she said he wanted to play on the lilly pads & climb the reeds.   But I love him!

R.I.P Freddie. ... you are still in Lynda's thoughts. 

LyndaW wrote:Oh you're probably correct Caroline, most things are illegal these days!   

Yep. Seems you need a permit to breath these days.

Sadly, yes, it is illegal now.

Tracy (and everyone else) - thank you for your kind thoughts and commiserations, but seriously - after 50 years I have come to terms with Freddie's demise, and to be honest he is not always in my thoughts; I just remembered him when chatting with Eleanor about her stickies!

Eleanor - is it seriously illegal to collect frogspawn now? Even just a little bit? I'm thinking schools here - it was so interesting and educational for young children to watch the spawn hatch into tadpoles and the tadpoles to metamorphose into froglets. What a great loss to modern day children.

As far as I'm aware, it's alright to collect a small amount of frogspawn, provided it's only a small percentage of the total number of eggs. The problem comes when somebody takes all of the eggs, as this takes away an entire genotype.

The main reasons it's illegal to remove frogs from the wild are that 1) they are protected and 2) this could spread a fatal frog disease called 'Red Leg Disease'.

I definitely agree that children can benefit a lot from watching the transition from frogspawn to frog!