One might think if you've seen one treefrog, you've seen them all but that's not true. I've gotten to know quite a few in and around my greenhouse and patio and often they have individual markings that differentiate one from another. While I dearly love the little frogs, I have one major fear of them - I cannot bear the thought of one jumping on me!
One summer not long ago I had several personal encounters with one particular treefrog that were very much too upclose and personal. One morning I was watering plants in the greenhouse when a tiny treefrog jumped out of the water reservoir at the bottom of a plastic hanging container and landed on top of my head! The term "Kanipshun Fit" probably originated when another woman somewhere in history had a treefrog land in her hair. It's a miracle I didn't injure myself...or the treefrog!
The treefrog soon abandoned the greenhouse and moved closer to our house. He'd lay low all day in plants around the patio then appear every night to feast on small flying insects around the patio.
We have a small sunroom with one solid wall of glass that looks out on the patio and backyard. It was interesting to sometimes watch the little insect magnet at night (with the whole expanse of back-lit glass to himself) do his thing!
Changing direction a little bit.
Every Tuesday night my husband and I drive halfway across town to choir practice at our church. We park on a very large concrete parking lot and there are generally less than twenty-five cars scattered around the lot on Tuesday night. In the hot summertime you can literally feel the heat rising from this large expanse of sun-baked concrete.
One August night we went to choir practice as usual. As we exited the building around 8:30 P.M., I noticed something on the windshield of my car. Wouldn't you know it??? The treefrog from home had somehow managed to survive being driven five miles or more on a busy street, hidden somewhere on my Jeep Cherokee and there he was, probably wondering how he was going to get back to the safety and abundance of bugs he called home?
I couldn't imagine what to do...how does one rescue a treefrog? I couldn't leave him to bake on the hot pavement. The parking lot is so huge I didn't think he'd ever get across it to the landscaped areas. I couldn't imagine trying to catch him but life and death situations demand heroic actions, I instantly knew what I had to do but catching a treefrog was going to take all the courage I could muster! So, I bravely reached out to grab my little buddy out of harm's way but I guess he remembered the morning of the Kanipshun Fit and fearing for his life he jumped probably 10-12 feet onto the hot parking lot!
By this time several other choir members had exited the building and pretty much the entire tenor section came to help. I was totally panicked as several men chased a treefrog that could easily jump out of sight, and it was almost dark. In a couple of minutes we wouldn't be able to see the little treefrog.
Suddenly I heard music to my ears that didn't have anything to do with singing!! Our dear friend, Wayne, had caught the treefrog!
Uh-hum, uh-hum!! What to do next?
I ran back into the church to the kitchen adjoining the Fellowship Hall and miraculously there were several empty Folger's coffee cans with plastic lids in the garbage can. I grabbed one and ran back outside hoping Wayne could transfer the little treefrog into the empty coffee can and we'd all happily go home, which he did and we did!
However...I still wonder how the treefrog survived the trip back home in that coffee can? There were a few coffee grounds in the can but that wasn't the problem as much as the intense, overwhelming coffee smell in the can. That poor little treefrog must have wondered what on earth had happened to him, had he somehow jumped into a Starbucks, but he did survive and the remainder of the summer I'd see him on the sunroom windows at night, always with two or three coffee grounds permanently stuck to his belly.
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