pets

I started to tell you a story --here-- and I will finish it now. Courtney and I carted the water bottle with the teeny tadpoles in it into Maine, back through New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and to New Jersey.

They didn't grow hardly at all. But they appeared to sprout a head. Not very tadpole like. When we got to New Jersey, I proudly showed my pets to my family. And they acted fascinated, but suggested that they might not be tadpoles. Milan said, "So, this is what school teachers do in the summer." Which put me and Courtney into fits. I forgot them in NJ, so Mother promised to keep them for me and let me know what became of them.

Upon further discussion, and a bit of research, it became evident that I had taken in as a pet, mosquito larvae.

But that is not all, oh no, that is not all.

At Panther Creek we found real tadpoles. Swarms of them. And I couldn't help but take some home with me. We caught three and put them in my emptied water bottle. Of course we stuck in good pond water, and a leaf, and I scooped up a bit of pond dirt to stick in there…to make it just like home.

At school on Monday, I transferred my new pets to the mini fish tank I have. And when the sand settled, I was most alarmed to discover that Tid, Tad and Todd were NOT alone. In fact there was a most disgusting vermin floating around too. It was the same color as the sand, and was particularly vile looking. Of course my exclamations of disgust brought all my students swarming, and one of them knew - beats me how - that it was probably a dragonfly larvae. Or a damselfly. Apparently, he was in the clump of dirt that I picked up.

I found a photo online so I could show you...he doesn't look quite like this. But you get the general idea...

You see, it really is vile, but I have high hopes of it becoming a lovely dragonfly, so I'm going to keep it. It's already growing a bit of a tail that looks more like a bug. Mostly it stays buried in the mud.


That was three or four weeks ago. Today Tid Tad and Todd are growing very nicely. Todd already has little bitty feet. Even Tid, the runt, is starting to put on some weight. They are biting away at the lettuce I feed them. I brought them home from school where I could enjoy them. I trust I will have three frogs soon.

I love frogs.