A about two weeks ago, there was a big black cricket in the house. We were in the middle of a terrible heat wave and I saw the cricket and thought: "frog food!" So I scooped up the cricket into a box and put him outside next to the pond when it started to get dark. Well, a day or so later, I picked up a rock next to the pond and there was a big cricket. Couldn't have been the same one, could it have been? I ignored him. Since then, I have seen a big black cricket by the pond or on the stairs nearly every day. I think it must be the same one. How is this possible? Granted, this is a big cricket, but if a snake can swallow a frog whole, why wouldn't any of our frogs or toads make a meal out of this guy? Yesterday, he was nonchalantly crawling on the netting over the pond. Is he now part of the pond community? How can this be?? This is not the way we understand nature. Frogs EAT crickets, they don't share habitat with them peacefully. Or - do they? Have they discussed the fact that the big visible interfering hand of human brought the cricket here, therefore, he gets a pass? I wonder how long he will last before being eaten by a frog, toad, bird, snake, etc. ? Pretty tough cricket. In vertebrate news, a few days ago, I stepped outside at night to visit the pond and surprised a very rumpled-looking possum on the porch who had been snacking on the veggies and nuts I left for the squirrel. He waddled away, looking disheveled and a bit bewildered. He belonged in a cartoon with his very distinctive confused expression, his adorable messy grey hair pointing everywhere and his pathetic little rat tail. So very cute. I hope he comes back. The first time I saw a possum, he was curled up on the bottom of my garbage can outside in California. He looked dead. I tipped the can over and came back later. He was gone. He had only been playing possum. A long time ago, I remember seeing another one on my back porch where I had left a big metal bowl of popcorn. I had heard an infernal racket and saw a silly possum putting his feet in the bowl, making it tip and clang on the ground as he grabbed a few bits of popcorn. He kept doing this making the same metallic racket over and over. Clown!
I really really love the diversity of species and personalities we have at the pond. I feel so privileged in being able to share this world. Spending time in this world, it is impossible, I think, not to develop understanding and respect. I think of long ago when I dissected that frog in high school biology class and thought it was kind of gross, and did not fully appreciate that this was a living breathing creature who could have had a full enjoyable life. If I had been a child growing up at this pond, I could not have dissected that frog and I would have had to have my mom or dad write some kind of note. No reason why an artificial frog, with innards, can't be made available to young students. I understand how you might have to work on the real thing if you were in vet school, but high schoolers? Such a waste of a lovely frog's life.
It is interesting that it took me only two weeks to go from seeing a cricket and thinking "frog food" to thinking of the cricket as a member of the pond community and being something/someone I have some level of concern for. There is a lesson there.
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