Amphibians are like pretzels, you can't have just one...

When mom perfected her frog feeding technique we decided to upgrade Junior and Sissy to a bigger home and get them a few friends. We added PCFs Green Girl, Gwendolyn, Cousin, Baby, and Rupert 1, 2 and 3... The Ruperts looked like triplets and were all brownish with bold black markings. Most of these guys were various rescues from cats, or children who brought them to us because their mothers wouldn't let them keep them, or our most interesting find-- the baby tree frog hopping down the produce aisle floor in the grocery store!

Interesting facts:

--Junior and Sissy lived to appx 6+ years.

--Other than our PCFs we eventually also had six Pacific Red-Legged frogs (Rana aurora) named Swampy, Rosy, Cedrina, Jerome, Shadrach and Mescach; a Western toad(Bufo boreas) named Wart; three Rough skinned newts (Taricha granulosa) named Sally, Nikki, and Newtly; a Northern alligator lizard (Elagaria coerulea) named "Skink"; and three garden snails named Lady, Blondie, and Indigo.

--We took our first PCFs on a road trip through Oregon/Washington once because we couldn't find anyone knowledgeable to care for them while we were on vacation. I sat in the back seat of the car next to the tank, which was wrapped in towels to protect it. It was my job to mist the frogs through the screen lid to help keep them cool. We carried frozen frog food with us in a little cooler. I remember mom and dad sneaking the tank into the Motel 6... lol! On the way home from that trip we had to stop for a swarm of little red newts that were crossing the road at a bridge... I was threatened with permanent grounding if I tried to get out of the car and collect any!

--The frogs are the reason my folks finally got air conditioning... to heck with the people, couldn't let the frogs get too hot, lol!

--While waiting their turn at feeding time I let our frogs play on my Fisher Price Castle set; Junior used to climb to the very top of the flag then swat toward the overhead room light with his little hand.

(it was one like this)

--After graduation I had a pair of Firebelly toads (Bombina orientalis) named Yin and Yang

Next time: Froggy summers and a vacation blunder!