Exodus 8:3

I have a confession to make.

I was almost kicked out of the last town in which I lived.

All because of frogs.

The town (unnamed, OK?)where we lived was small, but almost dead center of three very upscale little towns.

Not us. Ours was an unincorporated area, uneffected by regulations dictating niceties such as rusty cars as decorations.

However,I didn't have immoble cars cluttering up my view. Just a vast assortment of bikes,

and a treehouse.


Unincorporated also meant that we were free to pretty much have our choice of any size or type of pet, long as it was legal, and you could afford to feed 'em.

I had children.

And whatever they dragged home.

Currently that meant two dogs, a cat, a goose that thought she was a dog, and some ducklings.

Oh, and an assortment of unnamed bugs housed in glass jars.

One morning, my two boys, and their cousins meandered to the local stream.

Came home with two half filled, HUGE buckets of frogs.

The kind that just minutes ago dropped their tails and grew appendages...

It was the weirdest thing I ever saw. A mass of two inch wiggling, flaying multitudes of hundreds upon hundreds of 'em.

Now, pay close attention, because the following advice is of upmost importance. If you do not have, but may someday chose to have children, PLEASE, I beg of you to take these words seriously:

SHOW NO FEAR.

Thes cute little children that you nuture and love will someday learn the importance of using all those nasty, slimy, gross thingies that make you cringe in fear.

These darlings with big innocent eyes that cover you in kisses, and promise to grow up to marry you one day, will place these nightmare seeds
in your face,
in your closet,
in the car,
and under YOUR bed.

This is the truth. Verify it with any adult whom has hung around, or ran from a child.

So,

I "hopped" over to the kids and gave the proper talk about how the baby froggies needed their parents...that they should 'with speed' return them to their proper home.

They took the short cut and dumped them out on my neighbor's lawn.

Good thing they weren't home. They'd probably be a bit upset.

Two months later... Can you guess what happens when frogs are no longer in their natural habitat?

The food chain was broken.

They grew fat. And hardy.

Not that they were ungratefull...

In all honesty, these guys were great for our gardens...for a while. They'd munch up every pest within a two mile radius, freeing us gardeners of having to find other natural pesticides.

Then

I found one of 'em in my house.

When watering my yard, I left the screen door cracked open.

Poor frog, not wanting to drown, hopped up onto my porch unobserved by the traffic of kids and pets.

Did I mention that I do not like frogs?

SOMEONE needed to remove the creature that cowered a bit to close to my stove.

The thing is, that preparing yourself emotionally is only half of it.

Seems that they suffer anxieties too. Pick one up, they get upset.You

get...wet.

All my neighbors are pretty smart. Caught on quickly to make sure that THEIR doors were always left closed.

Here's another interesting fact:

If dogs get ahold of these creatures, they (the dogs) foam at the mouth.I wasn't the only one whom fearfully took my dog to the Vet thinking the worse...

Let me describe our street after the prolific frogs took up residence:

Every morning there'd be at least half a dozen pre-frogger players that never made it to the other side...paper thin carcasses dotted roads.

What finally saved us was the local College. First one student, then many would wait for the sun to go down, and with flashlights in hand, they'd canvess our neighborhood in search of easy money for the science labs.

Even the local media "hopped on" the bandwagon. Did a peice about the strange phenomenom that was threatening to overrun the multi-million dollar homes down the road...

I never did confess.

Til now.

But every time I read or study Exodus 8, I sure have a visual aide,

and a whole lot of sympathy....