Murderer!

Okay, I admit it. Please don't hate me. But it looked like one of our polliwogs died today. Really. He was still, belly up, at the bottom of the tank/vase. Dead. We shook it, the other 'wogs wiggled furiously, but ol' Herman, he just stayed still. So I panicked. I mean, did our 'wogs need air? Were they at that critical stage of amphibious development that made them require rocks or something so they could get out of the water a little? I mean, they had legs ... actual legs, with little webby feet sticking out of them. Legs that appeared to be doing at least some of the work in swimming.

So I dumped part of the water out while I sent the kids outside to get some rocks. And, yup, you guessed, it, ol' Herman decided to miraculously, like Lazarus, come alive. And because I am an idiot, I was pouring the water out directly into the sink. Without a strainer.

Herman went down the drain. Swish. With a flip of his dwindling polliwog tail he was gone, without so much as a thank-you-very-much-for-the-fish-food. Huh.

Dinner was almost ready, the rocks were procured and washed off and put into the vase. After a dinner where the mommy could be heard saying urgently, "Finish up! Hurry! We must get to the creek!" we piled into the minivan and took the remaining two 'wogs to the creek and let them go.

They stayed in the shallows near us for a few minutes, getting used to the temperature and the vastness of the space in front of them. (Plus that whole moving water thing appeared to be a challenge.) Then they swam off.

Strangely enough, I miss them. Whooda thunk it?