Happy polliwogs
By Margaret Knorr Submitted to Corner Post
When they were about seven and nine years old, my sister’s sons were “exploring” along a little creek in a wooded area near their home. The water was shallow and barely moving in most places. They had a bucket to try to catch minnows. But the minnows proved too quick. They would scoop to catch a few more but lose what they’d already caught. More than an hour into their adventure, the boys had just two small minnows to show for their efforts. Then movement among a bunch of dark, marble-sized dots in a pool of water just ahead caught their attention. Polliwogs!
They released the minnows and scooped at the cluster of polliwogs. “We got five!” exclaimed the nine-year-old. Staring into the bucket and studying their amazing find, they decided to take the polliwogs home to watch them grow. My nephews reasoned that the polliwogs would be happy away from snakes and birds and racoons that might eat them. Whether it had anything to do with concern that my sister would disapprove, the boys decided that behind a chair in the sunroom was a safe place for the bucket of polliwogs. “They’ll be happy here.” Ample light, climate-controlled, and safe from predators and mom.
Over the next few days, with a couple of additional trips to the creek, there were twenty polliwogs in the bucket. As they watched legs sprout and grow, my nephews decided their charges would be happier still to have some rocks to rest upon. So, they stacked some bricks and big rocks in the bucket of water. My sister still knew nothing of the biology lesson taking place in the sunroom.
Apparently, there is a period of frog development during which happy polliwogs become froglets with a strong sense of adventure — and that period is completed very quickly. It was at just that time, while the kids were at school, that my sister went to get something from a cabinet in the sunroom.
Our family still laughs at holiday gatherings to imagine her experiencing her own version of the Biblical plague of frogs. A score of frogs on the coffee table, under the sofa and in baskets. Let this be a warning — from a polliwog you can get a frog, but from twenty happy polliwogs you can get a very unhappy mom.
