The Great Frog Search

Last night we had a very strange occurrence in our home – a frog decided to come for a visit. My husband was just coming in the door and he yelled to me “quick, there’s a frog on the steps!” I ran over and found a little frog on the bottom step (we live in a half-basement dwelling – hence down the steps into the house).

Now, I better explain right now that my husband does not like things that jump at him. He is my official spider killer and happily performs this duty and removes any other nasty little creature that I find, but he DOES NOT like frogs! So, he is standing at the top of the stairs and I am standing at the bottom of the stairs and there is a frog in between. I grab a bag to catch the little thing and my daughter comes running out of her room because of all the commotion (she is supposed to be going to sleep).

My daughter climbs up on top of the dining room table to watch the show (and to stay out of the path of jumping frogs) and my husband comes warily down the steps to help me catch the frog. I make a grab for it and it hops onto my husband’s foot (remember – he DOES NOT like frogs) and he proceeds to squeal like a girl and scares the frog away.

At this point, we have no idea where the frog has escaped to (and my mother-in-law is upstairs wondering why I am screaming. Believe me, I was very happy to tell her it was HER SON that was screaming, NOT me!) so we proceed to move furniture around and look for the little guy. We finally find him and he escapes our clutches and flees to a secure spot between the armoire that holds the television and a bookshelf that is firmly attached to the wall. Hmmm. . . how do we get this frog now?

We decide to enlist the help of my father-in-law who is outside talking to the next-door-neighbour. I try to get TJ back in bed but she is having a fit (she thinks the frog is hiding in her bed by this point), so she runs back to the dining room table to observe the fiasco in the living room.

My husband and his father remove the television from the armoire and move the armoire out from against the wall. While Nick (dh) leans the armoire up on its side, his father kneels down to see if the frog is under there. No frog. Hmmm . . .

They really don’t want to move the bookshelves (which are screwed to the walls) so they decide to check under all the other surfaces first. One piece of furniture at a time is moved from the living room into the dining room. TJ is very happy because we find the odd lego or my little pony toy in the middle of “the great frog search”. Still no frog . . .

So, still not wanting to remove the bookshelves, Nick decides to pry the bottom drawer off one shelf to check for the frog. He gets the drawer off and discovers . . . no frog. . . and now he can’t get the drawer back onto the bookshelf.

By now they have checked everywhere else so we know that the frog must be under the other bookshelf. Nick pries that drawer out and FINDS the FROG!!!! YEAH!!! Much rejoicing!

He then allows his father to take a chance at frog catching and he . . . misses . . . and the little fella makes it to the safe haven underneath the armoire. But at least this time we know where he has gotten!

So, Nick tilts the armoire and his father reaches under with a net (that is supposed to be used for cleaning swimming pools, but I wasn’t being too picky at this point) and FINALLY succeeds in catching him under the net. He pulls him out and we have a frog captured underneath a net and we are scratching our heads trying to figure out how to get him back outside. I sacrifice one of my plastic containers and we get him in there. The father-in-law asks TJ if she wants to save him for a dissection project and I decide that’s not the best idea I’ve ever heard and my hero’s escort the frog back outside and release him (FAR away from the front door).

On the positive side - at least I got to clean out the junk underneath the coffee table! On the negative side – I now have two drawers sitting in front of two bookcases because we can’t get them back on.

(NOTE: I do have my husband’s permission to tell the whole world – or at least the people who read this blog – that he does, in fact, squeal like a girl when a frog lands on his foot!)