A Modern Day Frog Miracle

Last summer Sam and Ben caught three frogs in our yard. I have always had a rule: "If you find it in the yard, it stays in the yard." But without fail they always try and convince me to keep the "pets". Snakes, frogs, bugs, caterpillars and even cats. I have never had a problem enforcing the rule. They keep the creature for the day and then let it go home at bedtime so it can go sleep next to its family. Well, pretty much since February of 2011 I have not been very good at enforcing the rules. It's hard enforcing rules all by myself. I don't like it. I am not good at it. It makes me tired. So when they came to me and asked if they could keep these frogs as pets, I said yes. But, I did tell them they shouldn't expect the frogs to live more than a few days. Tiny frogs just won't last long in a cage. They were warned. 


Skip ahead 8 months. Yup, the dang frogs are still alive! We feed them tiny crickets a couple times a month and keep plenty of water in their cage. I guess they like it in there because these frogs aren't going anywhere!


On Saturday Sam and Ben had their frogs out of the cage and were playing with them. Ben decided the frogs were getting cold and gave them a warm bath in the sink. He had the water running and wanted to make them really warm so he only left the hot water on. He said they were swimming around and then they both got stiff. I was downstairs when I heard Sam screaming and crying. I knew something had happened to the frogs. I ran upstairs and Ben was holding two lifeless frogs. It looked like they were still breathing but their legs were stiffened out behind them and they couldn't move. I put them in the sink filled with cold water but all they did was float on their backs. I told Sam and Ben that they were dead and they both lost it.


Sam was throwing things around in his room screaming and crying. He tore his bed apart and then my bed apart. He threw the coats off the coat rack and was banging things against the wall. He was so angry and hurt and it just broke my heart to see him like that. At one point he said he wanted to kill himself. I think he has so much anger built up inside him from when Jonas died that when this happened he did not know how to control all that anger. 


Ben was crying on the floor and just kept saying he wanted to go to Heaven to live with his family. It was a horrible scene in my house on that Saturday afternoon! Sam decided we should say a prayer but he said he would just do it in his mind. 


I told Sam that we should bury them and he said "No!" He did not want those frogs to be put in the cold ground. I wrapped them in some toilet paper and set them on my kitchen counter. I decided to have my dad come and get Sam so he could play at his house and have some distance from Ben. (Sam was blaming Ben for this and he was really mad at him.) When Sam left he told me not to bury them until he got home. Ben went to a friends house to play and Jack stayed home with me. I kept checking the frogs to see if they had stopped moving. About two hours later one had totally stopped moving and looked flattened and darker green. The other was still making small movements. I thought the poor thing was dying slowly and suffering. I was feeling pretty bad for him.


This whole incident happened around noon. At 4:00 pm I walked into the kitchen to help Jack and noticed a frog sitting on my kitchen floor. I couldn't believe it! I lifted up the toilet paper and the other frog was sitting up looking at me. I was shocked. The crazy lucky frogs were alive! Their legs were tucked up underneath them again and they were crawling (not hopping) around. Maybe they had just been in deep shock or something but we are calling it a frog miracle! I called Sam and he was so happy (as you can imagine) he let out a loud, "YES!!!!" Then I called Ben.  I don't think he believed me at first because all I got from him was silence on the other end of the phone. After I told him a second time he said, "really?" I told him yes and he said, "it must have been Jesus."

Yes, Ben, I think you are right. I think your daddy saw how much you two were hurting and asked if there was anything that could be done to help these little frogs. It was a modern day frog miracle. 

The big light green frog is their cousin Kaleb's frog. After his mom heard what happened to Sam and Ben's frogs she brought theirs over and said they could have it. (I think she was glad to be rid of it!) So yes, thanks to my sister we now have FOUR pet frogs!