The Tadpole Drama Continues

When we lost Daisy last weekend, I had to wait until Monday to contact Grow-A-Frog. This wonderful company has a guarantee on their tadpoles and gladly told us they would send a replacement. Now keep in mind that GAF cannot send tadpoles in all weather. If its going to be hot, you have to wait for your delivery. (You don't want to fry the little guys in the UPS truck!) Since the weather was in the 70's all week, I figured we were free and clear. Wednesday, check the mail, no tadpole. Thursday, check the mail, no tadpole. Huh. So I call to ask when the new Tad was sent. A very worried voice on the phone said, "The Tadpole shipped on MOnday, you should have gotten it yesterday."

Crap.

They have already delivered the mail, so that meant that Friday was the next delivery, and that meant that wherever he was, it was going to be at least 5 days from door to door. 5 days with no food or sunlight.

At the kids' urging I called our local post office to inquire and lo and behold, they had JUST gotten the box. We drove down lickety-split to pick "Polka Dot" up from the post office. Here are the pics........

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And then there is Fernando, getting bigger by the day and showing his ginormous toes... Personally I think he's looking a bit smug over the whole "growing arm buds now" thing.

The Tadpoles are Here!!!!

For Evie's birthday, she asked for a Frog. An African Clawed Frog from a company called "Grow-A-Frog" which, much to my surprise, isn't in the Sea-Monkey type of business. When I did my research, I found out that kids had gotten frogs from this company from back in the late 70's and many, many of those frogs lived to be over 20 years old. At that point I understood that this was a multi-decade pet and I had to do some more research. First question, how do they ship 'em?? Answer, in a plastic baggie with water! Our Tadpoles arrived today, with the complete starter kit that will get them through to the Froglet stage. The kit included the tank, sand, shells, food, booklet and two Tadpoles.

The kit Evie ordered was the "TadVenture" kit. Everything we needed, right down to the hot pink (color chosen by my Pink Lovin' girl!) sand, sea shells and plastic palm tree. And two GORGEOUS little Tads.

Of the two Tads, one is big and strong and was up and running in the "Head down, Tail Up" feeding position. The smaller of the two was in what I might say was a bit of stress. Honestly, I wouldn't do half so well after being shipped UPS, so props to the little guy! After an hour or two in the tank, however, he too was zooming around and gobbling up their filter feed.



Evie spent a considerable part of the afternoon in a chair in front of the tank and holding a magnifying glass. The tadpoles' skin is see through, so you can see their heart pumping and veins... right down to the leg buds growing on the Big Guy. Honestly, I can now see leg buds growing on the Little Guy, and I swear they weren't there earlier! My little scientist is beside herself watching these guys. (and yes, as the Reigning Champion Tadpole and Frog Catcher, I myself am amazed)



Big Guy actually belongs to a friend of ours, but her parents aren't sure about keeping a frog, so Abby is "babysitting for life" until we know otherwise. :) Our friend Kassie has tentatively named her's Fernando, but we won't know if he is a boy or girl for about 5 more weeks, when they turn into Frogs. When I asked Evie what hers was named today she said, "I don't know. It'll come to me."





I'll keep everyone updated on the Tads, and Evie's upcoming B-day celebration.