Monsoon Fun

I'm taking a break from posting about my vacation...I'll get the second half up shortly. So consider this post a brief intermission.

Okay. I had a little visitor camping out in my backyard last night. It was time for bed so I went to call my dogs inside for the night. I noticed that my dog Coco was paying particular attention to the grill on my patio so after I more forcefully told her to get inside, I took a better look at the grill to see what was going on. I saw something big moving underneath of it. Now I was freaking out!

For those of you who know me know that I am a BIG scardy cat when it comes to creepy crawlies and critters of almost all types (especially the dreaded spider). Immediately I thought that the thing that had the nerve to hide under my grill was a tarantula. I went into instant protective mode (for myself or my dogs, I'm not sure) and shut the back door very forcefully. That would teach it!! But now I had a problem. If I ignored the critter than my dogs would hunt it down and kill it in the morning. What if it was something poisonous?

I decided to put on my big girl panties and take care of the problem. I shut my dogs in my bedroom so they wouldn't run out of the back door when I opened it and then I got my flashlight and a tupperware container and went hunting. After searching the area around my grill for a minute or two (and getting scared by the light of my flashlight...I was jumpy, what can I say?) this is what I found.

A FROG!! In my backyard!! How does this happen? I can understand snakes and spiders, crickets, and roaches...but frogs? This is the desert after all. Wierd! The only expanation is that it is monsoon time and my neighbors (who have been gone for quite awhile) have a pool in their backyard. Perfect place for frogs to live and breed.

I got my tupperware container and went into action. Thankfully frogs are not one of the critters that I am afraid of so it was easy to get it inside it's plastic prison. And I'm sure my neighbors were glad it wasn't a tarantula so they would not have to listen to me screaming bloody murder every time it twitched.




Now what should I do with it? I decided to march the frog through my house and out the front through my garage. It seemed like a better plan than tossing it over the wall and into my neighbor's pool or giving it a thrilling ride through the city septic system. I left it on the curb to fend for itself (or to hitch a ride to somewhere other than my backyard).


I was pretty proud of myself at this point. I took care of a critter problem without breaking down in hysterical sobs and saved my dogs from the fate of eating a potentially poisonous frog. I went back to the bedroom to free my dogs and guess what I found? Guess how they decided to reward me for saving their lives?

One of them PEED on my BED!!!! Yep...good times.