This morning there was a mid-sized frog in my garage. I think it was a Gopher Frog. They are apparently pretty rare.
I didn't realize this was the Nets OT forum when I clicked it. Thought you had something to add about the 1st preseason game. LOL You and your animals. Haha. -Petey
actually my daughter found it when she was getting into the car. It was about 3" inches long, which is pretty big. We picked it up and put it outside. It didn't hop off or squirm when we picked it up, and I was worried that it was sick, but it now seems to have hopped off into the bushes. It's possible that I misidentified it, but if not it is a protected species. They like to live in the holes dug by the gopher tortoise, and there is at least one in the area that I saw a few months ago. Earlier in the morning she found another cricket frog on the pool deck. We now check every day. If we don't put them back in the garden, they often die by mid-day from the heat of the sun. They get onto the deck through the water drain, and have trouble finding their way back. I feel responsible for them, because I built the deck and enclosed it with a screen. Last week one must have fallen into the pool, because I found it in the pool filter next to the pump. Not pretty.
I've been making a point to get her used to dealing with all critters--frogs, spiders, slugs, etc.--to eliminate the ick factor while she is still young. I even show her the dead ones, and she has kept some of the skeletons (I don't let her keep any of the recently-dead ones, though, for obvious reasons).
Finding al these critters is the only good thing about living in Florida. A few months ago, I heard yelling in the garage. Two mouring doves had gotten inside, and were blocking the way to the door, and my wife was afraid to walk past them. One was actually hurt, though, and got several blood spots on the ceiling. :-( I think the one that was hurt was dazed, and couldn't figure out how to get out, and the other didn't want to leave him. The gopher tortoise is pretty cool also. But nothing beats the manatee! There's a pod that hangs out in the bay near the town marina, about two miles away. I have watched them all summer.
ok. honestly, I feel it would just be a horrible distraction from things I should be doing instead right now . . .
