Welcome Lemon

Meet Lemon

She entered our household quick, unknown, unprepared, and controversial.  However, she is now very much a part of our daily routine.  We, or it should be stated, "I" let out the dog, play catch with him and his tennis ball while searching the pool for crickets for the newest addition.... the frog.   The daughter caught the frog we now call Lemon, named by 4 year old granddaughter, on a camping trip.  Having no clue what kind of frog this was, or knowing what to feed it, or most of all what to keep it in, we started our adventure.  It was understood real quick that the tall plastic goldfish aquarium would not keep it prisoner.  Our little Houdini broke out of his jail cell twice in one night narrowly escaping two vehicles and the golden retriever.   It was quickly relocated to a 5 gallon aquarium with a lid duct taped, just in case.  Still in the garage, we've added a designer "cave", rocks, and frog log.  Happy as a frog!!  Daughter cleans the tank and Lemon has not gone AWOL.

After researching the creature, the daughter informs me it is a young, female bullfrog.  Thank goodness "Lemon" is a  fairly gender neutral name.   Yes, the size of the circles behind the eyes indicate male/female.  I know what you were thinking.  Now, we also know the amphibian consumes bugs.  Yippee.  Crickets are abundant in the early morning around the pool, so we (I) take the little tykes bug catcher and snatch up all the crickets I can.  Lemon eats them faster than I can wrestle them in averaging about 10 a day.  Let's try caterpillars and worms... yep gone.  How about dragon flies.... yep.  She said "no" to the sweat bees.  Good thing.  After further research, "do not feed anything with stingers".  Oops.  Yet, still alive.  Hmmmm.  Doesn't fancy spiders or beetle types either.  Did I mention she's very amusing to watch eat?  Oh yes, it's official.  I am attached.

A Female Bullfrog.... only a mother could love.

Problem.  We closed the pool this weekend.  The cricket supply has dried up, at least from me because they are too hard to catch if they are not swimming.  After digging potatoes, she had a tasty worm for a treat, however, the potatoes have all been harvested.  Daughter has to decide.  Will she keep Lemon in the basement (getting her into the house will be another controversial feat) and furnish nourishment for her?  Or do we visit Uncle's pond and return the creature to a natural habitat.  Now I'm wondering if she will eat tuna?  Raw meat?  Turkey lunch meat and Iams dog food were rejected.

Stay tuned.