Surprise frog landing made her happy

I was repotting plants when I felt a leaf fall on my bare foot. I started to kick it off but then I realized that it wasn’t a leaf. It was a little green frog sitting calmly on my foot. So I yelped before sending it flying. Then I felt bad for it. After all, it wasn’t hurting anything.

 When I told my daughter, Beth, she laughed and said she was going to tell her kids that Grandma was afraid of frogs. I said I wasn’t afraid, just startled, though I doubt the frog was concerned with semantics as it was sailing through the air.

A few weeks earlier I was deadheading some pincushion flowers in front of the house when something ruffled my hair. No, it wasn’t another frog. It was a big praying mantis. It landed a couple of inches in front of my hands. Since it is one of the good guys I used it as an excuse to quit for the day.

All wildlife isn’t as innocuous. My friend in Colorado had to abandon her koi pond because local bears thought it was their own personal snack bar. Last week a squirrel got under their car and chewed through the wiring. The dealership wanted $327 to fix it. Luckily, her husband was able to do the repair for a mere $27.

At least the local wildlife at my house doesn’t do that. Yet.

I grew up on a farm where wildlife was taken for granted. Now I live in town and am always surprised at how many living things call my home their home. There are butterflies, birds, evil squirrels that have yet to discover tasty wiring, raccoons, groundhogs, friendly frogs and toads, feral cats and much more. Thankfully, snakes have sense enough to remain unseen, although I assume they are also around. I haven’t seen the local fox this year.

When my husband and I have gone for our walk we have encountered herons, kingfishers, an otter and a skinny black cat. We have watched the tiny fish in the river that are in danger of meeting an untimely death due to the work being done to alleviate future flooding. Then, again, they always are in danger this time of year when the rains go away and the river becomes a series of puddles.

All of this diversity, both seen and unseen, is what makes our world wonderful. How dull it would be if there were no praying mantises or little green frogs to startle us out of our reverie. What would we do without buzzards circling overhead to remind us of our mortality? How empty life would be if nothing ever landed on us, mistakenly believing we are harmless?

If the frog or praying mantis had landed anywhere close to any of my grandchildren they would have captured it. It would have been thoroughly examined and shown to everybody around. A container would have been found and the creature would have been incarcerated until dark, when it would have been released.

Not me. I delight in the chance encounters but have no intention to actually touch anything that allows me a glimpse into its life.

Something as simple as a frog landing on my foot made me happy. I only hope I didn’t hurt it when I kicked it off.