April 12, 2005
Frogs akimbo
The problems of renting are manifold. The ever-present sense of pouring hard-earned money into the mortgage of another. The neighbours (who own) who set about painting your fence to match theirs, assuming you have no say in it anyhow. The dilemma of gardening. To plant or not to plant. The issue of wall-hangings. How do you put up a picture without poking a hole in the wall?
All that pales beside the problem of the frogs.
We've been in our current house, renting, for almost six years. Early on we heard a POK! Pok! POK! noise coming from the small back garden. Realising it was a frog plaintively calling for a mate it occurred to us that if he managed to find one, where was he going to get it on? Frogs need water to mate and lay their eggs.
So, we set about creating conditions favourable to frogs. Standing water, shaded by over hanging plants and a way to climb out once they were in.
Soon, success! Frog spawn appeared on the water of the blue ceramic pot we'd set up. The tadpoles that grew were fascinating to watch. We dropped in lettuce leaves and the occasional ham scrap.
This was followed by more spawns, and more. It soon became evident the tadpoles didn't need us to feed them and the whole project was declared (by us) to be a rip-snorting success. So much so that many summer nights were filled with a syncopated symphony of Pok! POK! PoK! pok! noises, followed, and this is important, on occasion by the answering brrrRRRRRK! of a female.
Now however, we have to leave. The garden is made up almost entirely of potted plants and the now several water holding vessels are also portable and will go. We installed a small pebble encrusted fibreglass pond by digging it into the ground. We'd be willing to leave it behind if we had the slightest hope that subsequent tenants will will keep the frog dream alive. We don't entertain that hope.
For one thing we've never used a chemical on the garden. Frogs are very sensitive to environmental pollutants as they absorb them through their skin. For another, the noise takes some getting used to.
The breed is also quite common so there's no hope of transferring the tadpoles to a waiting recipient desperate for Striped Marsh Frogs. The place we are moving to is both cold and to distant (it's apparently not a good idea to transport frogs to far afield as this can spread disease).
So, it's a quandary. Maybe a solution can be found. I'm open to suggestion. Just nothing that involves French restaurants.
Posted by IndianInk at April 12, 2005 11:14 AM