After one failed attempt to release the frog (I say frog singular, because the other two disappeared), we finally pushed our frog off the lily pad.  We tried last Friday but my baby talked me right out of it.  "They won't survive" she said.  "They're too small to make it on their own."

We loaded them back up and brought them back home.  I'm a sucker for animals. 

 To make myself feel better, I talked with an environmentalist last Saturday.  She was showing reptiles and amphibians at the weekend River Fest here in town.  I jokingly asked her if she "took" frogs.  She said she didn't but inquired about my question. I explained our "situation."  

She very seriously (with a smile) said: "You have got to let them go.  They are going to get big."  

Don't get me wrong.  I have enjoyed raising these frogs more than my daughter.  I have been a bit of a worrisome frog mother, so to speak.  I have checked on them every day.  I have been intrigued by their transformation.  I mean, it's pretty amazing that just a couple of months ago they were swimming around like fish.  

I remember getting so excited when their back legs popped out.  It wasn't long that we saw front legs.  Then, just as God orchestrated, they crawled up onto the rocks to breath air.  It is miraculous, really.  

This is crazy, but I'm a bit sad.  No more frogs on the front porch.  I can only hope the two that disappeared will make it.  Maybe one day we'll see them in our front yard.  Who knows?

We picked a spot at Berry, across from the water-wheel.  We walked down a good 40 yards away from any hiking traffic and said our goodbyes beside the creek.  I took a few pictures.  

I know we picked a great spot because as were watching him sitting still, checking out his new "home", a little salamander scurried by.  

Froggie Hansard is in the center, salamander is top-right.

And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.”  So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”  And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

Genesis 1:20-23