A Tadpole Named Bob

At the beginning of the summer my son Ben went to play by a pond at a friend's house. I picked him up to find him hauling a bucket containing 2 tadpoles.

"I'm gonna keep them and have pet frogs," Ben proclaimed. I sighed, remembering my own childhood attempt to keep tadpoles. What I didn't have then was access to the internet. I was amazed at the information on caring for a tadpole at home. "This is actually possible?"

I still had my doubts, but put some boiled lettuce in a clear Rubbermaid box filled with rocks and filtered water. We changed the water and lettuce every few days, but Larry the tadpole quickly died. I feared the day Bob would die as well. To my amazement, weeks went by and the tadpole thrived. We went on vacation for several days and I ran to the stinky container expecting to see a floating tadpole. Instead, I saw a tadpole with back legs!

I checked the internet again, now pretty convinced that this was going to happen, but still afraid it wouldn't. The info said the transformation from this point on would be magical it happened so fast. That was an understatement. Each day we woke up to run and see what change occured next. We started putting Goldfish food in the water so he'd get some protein. Then after about 6 weeks, we found a frog sitting on a rock that stuck out of the water's surface. Yep. A frog. He still had a bit of a tail, but he was done with the water.

We moved Bob to a tank filled with what the pet store advised for the bottom, along with a large pond and some fake trees and rocks. I eyeballed the boxes of crickets, then was informed I needed a "Cricket Keeper". (Of Course!) I then got crickets in bulk...and then...cricket food. Yes, food for the food.

Each day, Bob absorbed more of his tail until it was gone. My husband was afraid he wasn't getting crickets. It was like Bob was a our baby. I lowed a cricket right in front of him, and sure enough, he knew what to do.

Now I wish I had recorded each stage. I was too pessimistic about his transformation, but transform he did! He's a thriving, swimming, hopping and cricket eating frog. In fact, helping Ben with Bob's transformation has been the highlight of my summer.