The Heartbroken Frog

Last December Connor received a "tadpole" farm from his Grandparents, which consists of a small frog habitat. Connor was so excited to raise his very own frogs. I decided that it would be a little hard to order the tadpoles, and hopefully raise them to frog-dom (or just didn't matter to him at this age). So I brought Connor to the pet store, and let him pick out some frogs.

We arrived, and there was only one type of Frog to choose from. The fire-bellied toad. The belly was the only cute thing about the Toad, and you NEVER see it. Oh well. Connor was happy. The lady selling me the Frog told me that I should buy two since they are socal, and they will actually sing to eachother when they are happy. Ok, fine, I'll buy two. I can't keep a poor lone frog in a tiny habitat alone. I felt bad for it already.

As time went on, the new-ness wore off, and Connor has all but forgotten about them. They don't even sing to remind us that they are there. But they do seem to stick together.

Unfortunately after a vacation, I had forgotten to replace the small feeding lid to the tank, and one escaped... I told Connor it ran away. So ever since then, which it's been about a month, I think I've only seen our poor frog eat once. I started to think that it might be heartbroken.

We left on Vacation for 10 days, and I had my friend feed him twice in that time, and it didn't eat AT ALL. I know that because meal worms can't swim. Anyway, I decided to take despirate measures and put some crickets in. Maybe this would be the key to breaking his starvation strike. I put one lone cricket in (one that I caught myself in the house since I forgot to pick some up from the store).

You will never believe what happened. He didn't go after the cricket. It's almost like they're buddies. This morning the cricket had jammed himself into a corner, and the frog was right next to him, as if to say, help! My friend is stuck! Now I'm beginning to think that his heart really is broken. He is actually befriending his meal. He has now pretty much stuck by him for a whole day.

I don't know what to do. I feel so bad for our poor little froggie, who has lost his one true love (not to mention what a boring life a cage has to be)! We will see how this new replacement goes...but I don't want to go back and get another. It's the age-old tale of moms getting stuck caring for their kids pets. Hopefully the frog will feel better soon. Otherwise his new home might be the pond nearby.