the daily snivel

Well, it was bound to happen, but six and a half years after she was brought home, my beloved green tree frog, Gimpy (so named because the toes on her front leg were malformed, making it hard for her to use it to climb), has gone up to frog heaven. I came home last night and didn't see her in her usual location, (namely, sitting motionless for hours while clinging to the glass wall of her aquarium), and started to look around and see if she were alright. I didn't see her anywhere, which started to concern me. I knew the old gal was getting on in years (green tree frogs don't live much past seven years) and she had been predeceased by the two males that accompanied her when my friend Natalie bought them for me (the first died two years ago and the second died last year -- as an aside, you can tell the sex of these frogs by the colour of the throat, and the size -- females are larger). Still, she's been happy and healthy for a remarkably long time, having survived a cat attack by George two years ago when he busted into the aquarium, grabbed the frog, and knocked her around the floor until I came home and found her in the kitchen playing dead -- limp, dusty, swollen, and bloody -- and then nursed her back to health over several weeks with careful applications of diluted hydrogen peroxide and lots of love.

But, all things are inevitable, and it was her time to go. I was really upset by it, even though a frog is by no means a loving companion the way a cat or a dog is. They tend to think of you as a giant hand of justice that dispenses crickets, showers of water, and the horrible horrible tortures of handling and confinement in old pickle jars while the terrarium is being cleaned. But I love these creatures, and feel a definite loss. I actually cried when the first frog died, but have been expecting this for some time and feel a little more resolved. I'm glad that I gave them all a good and healthy lifetime, with lots of tasty bugs and warmth and humidity, just the way they liked it. I loved them like any other pet, cuddly though they weren't.

Goodbye old frog.