Cleopatra, the Beautiful Frog

I have mentioned a very lovely Rio Grande Leopard Frog that has been gracing the pond for awhile.  She is just exceptionally beautiful - you can't help but notice that she is special.  She has long graceful legs that she folds neatly under her perfect torso.  She also has an exceptionally long and narrow nose, for a frog.  This nose of hers is actually quite striking and it helps me recognize her from the other frogs.   She is also extremely shy and dives for cover whenever I'm around, so I only get to catch glimpses of her now and then.  Sometimes, I look out the window and she is hiding so that all I can see is her beautiful nose peeking out from under a rock..


I decided that this lovely frog needed a nice name and for some reason, I thought of Cleopatra. 

I swear that  I did not know beforehand, however,  that Cleopatra's nose has been the object of philosophical and literary discussion!  

From the Wikipedia entry for Cleopatra, I found the following:

"In his Pensées, philosopher Blaise Pascal contends, evidently speaking ironically because a large nose has symbolized dominance in different periods of history, that Cleopatra's classically beautiful profile changed world history: "Cleopatra's nose, had it been shorter, the whole face of the world would have been changed."

This passage, however, did not make it clear to me why, exactly, Cleopatra's nose was famous.  Looking further, I found that "Cleopatra's Nose" is actually the name of a theory (From an essay by Neil Munro in his Pathways to Philosophy website):

"The role of chance in history is often known as the Cleopatra's nose theory, first advanced by Pascal and holding that, had Mark Anthony been less captivated by Cleopatra's charms, he might have turned in a better performance at the battle of Actium, with all the fascinating "what if" consequences for the Roman Empire and subsequent Western civilisation that might have followed."

I also found a book called Cleopatra's Nose: 39 Varieties of Desire,  by Judith Thurman.  It is described by Amazon as: "an exuberant gathering of essays and profiles representing twenty years of Judith Thurman's celebrated writing, particularly her fascination with human vanity, femininity, and "women's work"--from haute couture to literature to commanding empires." 

I very much like Cleopatra the frog hanging out in the pond and reminding us all of the role of chance in our lives.  What has chance brought to us?  How many times have I wondered what might have been...

Get Off The Road, Toad!

All this week, it has been dusk or dark when I get home from work.  On Monday, as I drove up the driveway towards the carport, I saw something....toadlike...in front of the carport.  I stopped just short of what could have also been a leaf (with my terrible eyesight) and I saw a smiling toad right in my path.  I shooed him to the the grass, towards the pond.  What a nice greeting, I thought.  Tuesday, same thing, this time, the toad was facing me as I drove up and seemed to stare into my headlights.  Again, I stopped the car, and walked the toad to the side of the driveway, then quickly drove into the carport.  Today -- there were two little frogs in the driveway.  Again, I got out of the car and shooed them away.  I recognized these two guys as the two young toads who like to hang out in the pond.  One of them is slightly yellowish and skinny.  A few minutes later, I came out with a flashlight and there was the yellow toad right back in the middle of the driveway. Knowing that my husband would be driving down the driveway soon, I kept watch and made sure that the toads wouldn't get squished by my husband's car.   

This wasn't the first time I've seen toads in the road. About six months ago, I got a phone call.  "Steph, move your toad."  I came outside and there was my husband, in his car, in front of Ulysses (the giant wise toad who I haven't seen for awhile) who was sitting in the middle of the carport right in the car's path.  I walked with Ulysses and escorted him as he slowly hopped back to the garden and the pond.

Why are the toads deciding that they want to hang out in the street?  Bad place for toads!!!  I confess that two years ago, I ran over a frog in the driveway at night.  He hopped right in my path and I felt just terrible.  I hate hate hate finding flat frogs in the street.  Why?  Are they attracted to the warmth of the pavement as the weather starts to get cooler? Are they hunting on the street?  I don't see bugs on the street.  Frogs are confusing.  Can someone please tell me why the toads are on the roads in the Fall?

Finally! A frog comes back.

For a whole week after our glorious rain, there hasn't been a single frog in the pond.  It made me very sad.  Hercules was nowhere to be seen for days, either.  (Hercules is my lizard boyfriend.)


Friday, my husband reported that "[my] boyfriend" was on the porch and was quite annoyed with him using the recycling bin.  He kept running up the tree and coming back and running up the tree again.  (My boyfriend, not my husband.)  I still haven't seen Hercules, so I hope my husband hasn't permanently run my boyfriend off. 

Then last night, late, I saw a magnificent Rio Grande Leopard Frog in the pond.  She was one of the biggest I had ever seen and was quite stunning.  I was so happy to see a frog back at the pond.  I still haven't seen a single toad, though and wonder what happened to the the three juveniles that had been regulars most of the summer.

Yesterday, my next door neighbor said that there has been a giant toad hanging out around their house for awhile.  I told her that it might very well be Ulysses. They have a very nice garden with more shade than I have, so maybe he spent the hot summer with them.  I hope he visits me again.

What are we, chopped liver??

So, it finally RAINED three days ago!!   This was a serious 2 inch rainstorm that filled the pond and actually saturated the earth.  Awesome, right?  Well, yeah.  But....NO frogs have visited the pond since then.  Not one.   Not a single frog or toad and my lizard boyfriend has disappeared.    I guess we aren't the only game in town anymore.  How sad.  I have a nice full, clear pond and no frogs. 

Fair weather friends!  (I guess that would be drought-weather friends.)

Hints of Rain!

Austin is still suffering from this horrible drought, but we had some very exciting drizzle this morning and an actual short downpour (that lasted maybe 30 seconds).  We might have some more coming so we are keeping our fingers crossed. Do frogs have fingers?  Why yes they do!  Looking for some bit of information on whether there is a special name for a frog's hand, I found the following that was disconcertingly placed on an unnamed/unlabeled "dissection worksheet" that must have been for some poor high school kid's biology class : "To determine the frog’s sex, look at the hand digits, or fingers, on its forelegs. A male frog usually has thick pads on its "thumbs," which is one external difference between the sexes. Male frogs are also usually smaller than female frogs."  So, not only did I learn that frogs and people both have hands, fingers and even thumbs, I found out that I can perhaps tell males and females from their thumbs. Also found out that a frog has four fingers on each hand and five toes on each foot!

Last night, the pond was graced with 3 small toads and one pretty Leopard frog.  Every time I come out to visit at night, I hear a "plop" or two as I come out, which is the sound of a frog diving for cover.  The toads only leave or dive, though, when I annoy them by getting too close or trying to take too many pictures with flash bulbs.  Normally, they will just hang out with me. Whether they are curious or lazy or just don't care? -- who know?  I do like their attitudes, though. This guy let me get pretty up close and personal before he dived down, annoyed at the flash.

The little guy below just stayed put, trying to pretend I wasn't there.

We had a bit of excitement last week with the possum.  Since the first time I saw him, I saw him a couple of more times next to the pond and I thought that he was just hanging out looking for bugs and plants to eat.  Researching, however, I found that possums eat snakes and frogs.  So Mr. Possum is no longer welcome.  I made that fact perfectly clear to him when I found him scrounging in the garden at night.  I yelled at him and told him he needed to leave.  Mr. clueless possum then waddled up stairs to porch and then huddled by the front door as I scolded him.  He showed me his teeth in a very harmless way and just huddled there, with fleas crawling all over his poor little face. With the handle of a shovel, I nudged him back and asked him to turn around and leave.  He would not.   I finally just had to push the poor thing off the porch, while telling him sternly that he was not ever to come back.  He didn't like that one bit and hasn't shown up since.

My lizard boyfriend has been visiting frequently, however.  He has been regularly coming onto the porch where I say hello to him every day, usually sometime between 2 and 4 pm. Last night, I started a new job and wasn't home until 7:00 pm.  When I came home, I found him on the porch where he seemed to be waiting for me.  He stayed there and we chatted (ok, well, he listed to me talk to him) and I threw out some frozen corn for him.  He didn't eat the corn while I was there, but I left him alone and when I came back, the corn was gone.  I really really like that lizard.  He lost his tail a couple of days ago and looks a little pathetic, but I don't dare tell him.  I only tell him how handsome I think he is.  I think his name needs to be Hercules, as he wants me to be very impressed by his push ups and feats of lizard strength and as I tell him, he is extremely handsome.  If I leave Texas, I will miss him very much.

Baby Praying Mantis next to our front door!

Living in unison with wildlife is hard.  You learn to simply accept the departures of your friends.  Life is so precious and can be so very temporary.   I haven't seen the wise giant toad Ulysses in a long time and have no idea whether he has found a better home or whether he was eaten by some hawk or possum.  It is hard to accept that one day, you could be enjoying a laugh with a beautiful creature who has come to be your friend and the next day, that friend has gone, maybe to come back and maybe never to be seen again.  You just don't know.  You can't control it, no matter how hard you try.  Nature is tough.

Oh -- speaking of creatures I was sure should have departed by this time, that damn frog-loving cricket showed up again yesterday.  He is certainly walking the tightrope of life!

Fall Begins

Fall began just a few days ago with a slight cold front, letting us taste a few temperatures in the morning in the 60's last week with a few sprinkles here and there.  That was just a tease though, as since that little break, we are now back in the 100's and haven't seen any more rain. Plants that tried to show us some green are brown again and the grass is just straw.  Nevertheless, that week or so of slightly cooler temperatures and just that little bit of moisture seemed to bring some bugs out.  I clearly wasn't imagining the new bugs as last night, I got to see a frog, a toad, and my big lizard with nice healthy tummies for the first time in months.  So nice to see a nice round-bodied toad!  The lizard, who loves to come up on the porch when the temps are over 100, looked absolutely gorgeous.   When I came out, he predictably ran up the Elm tree in front of the house where he can blend in with the bark while carefully watching me.  I came out and admired him and he granted me a few push-ups.  He was either showing me his virility because he thought me a threat or he was flirting.  I sweet-talked him for a bit and let him be.  I would love to have a lizard as a pet, but would really really hate putting anything this beautiful in a cage.  He seems to have an ideal life.

Today, I was going to fill the water bucket to replenish the pond and saw a small scorpion in the bottom of the bucket.  Normally, all scorpions in my world get killed immediately.  No shortage of these little evil monsters.  But, with the bugs as scarce as they've been, I rethink these decisions now.  Would this scorpion be a good snack?  That stinging tail gave me pause, though.  I would not want a frog to get stung.  So -- I took a pair of pliers and nipped off the stinger.  A drop of poison collected on the stinger as I dropped it in the trash.  Unfortunately, the scorpion seemed not to survive the amputation.  That kind of surprised me, as it seemed pretty minor to just have the end of your tail nipped off.  I guess you can't just nip the evil off some things.  Seemed like such an easy fix, too.

Surprising New Residents and Visitors

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.