Doing the Right Thing

We had to do some growing up today and make a hard decision.  Our last little frog that I told you about in my previous post did not make it.  I felt horrible.  I caught bugs, we bought crickets hoping this little guy would eat something and grow but I don't know that he ate anything, he was so tiny...that's a terrible feeling!

If you remember, I mentioned that we had one tadpole left.  This past weekend, we noticed that he had all four legs, still had some tail left but was hanging around the bottom a little bit.  We waited till we first saw him sitting on a leaf, then he was clinging to the side of the aquarium.  Time to get the little guy out!!

Chris and Riley handled the transition this time (Thankfully!!  I was glad to hand over the responsibility!) and got him in the frog habitat with a little water.  He seemed to settle in nicely and started hopping around.  Chris and I were busy trying to decide, "is this one bigger than the other one?"  "I hope so!"  "Yeah, he is!(?)"  Riley caught a small grasshopper and put him in the habitat.  Over the next couple of days, I caught a few bugs and had to tell Riley to catch more.  First he argued with me, then he reluctantly attempted to catch one and put it in with the frog.  This was too much of a battle, and this was how it went with the other frog.  I was doing all the work...what's wrong with this picture?

Tonight I told Riley as he was going outside to take his bug jar with him to catch some dinner for his frog.  "No!" was the answer!  (Arrgh!  There is that strong will again!)  I quickly responded, "Then we are letting the frog go!"  "No Mom!  I love my frog!"  So then we proceeded to remind him that when you have a pet you need to take care of it, it is not Mom and Dad's responsibility!  Also, this might be one of those times that we need to do the right thing and let the frog go so he could try to survive on his own, let God take care of it. (I couldn't bare the thought of another frog dying under our care!)

As we all headed outside, I could tell Riley was pondering this decision he had to make.  We talked about it a little longer and when we were done, he went inside.  Shortly he came back out with his frog habitat, ready to let the little guy go.  As we talked about where we were going to let it go, he had tears in his eyes.  I know it was hard but I was really proud of him.

We decided to let him go in the garden where the pumpkins and blackberry bushes are.  Lady can't get in there and he would be protected.   Chris lifted Riley over the fence and we gave him the habitat.  Riley got to work placing the little jar lid in the ground for water, then he took the cover off the habitat.  All the bugs that were still inside flew or hopped out, then the little frog hopped out onto a blade of grass.  I must admit, I was a little hesitant, "He's so little!" "what if something gets him?"  "Will he survive?"  But yet I knew it was the right thing to do.  I reminded Riley how frogs are good for gardens because they eat the bad bugs that eat our plants.  That helped us both I think.

Riley said a few minutes later, "Mom, I'm sad but I'm glad too."  That let me know he knew he did the right thing.  It was a tough decision for him but he handled it well.  Maybe he learned the importance of taking care of God's creation and how we are "given charge over the animals and creatures"?  Time will tell.  Overall, it was a good lesson, seeing the tadpoles go through their transition into a frog.  I wouldn't trade that part for anything, but loosing the previous frogs was tough and not an easy part of the learning experience.  Would I do it again?  Maybe.  We would definitely let them go sooner!