From Leap Frog to Toad in the Pole

Silvery soft, silky, squishy and slightly dry that’s what I thought the glob of sticky putty would feel like as I gingerly tried prying it from between my speedometer and dashboard while driving home; and then it jumped! It was a silvery soft, silky, squishy and slightly dry Arum frog (Hyperolius horstockii). So with both eyes on the leaping frog, foot heavy to the metal I almost hit a pole. That was a frog in the throat moment! Fortunately in mid-flight he hit the back of the steering wheel which ricocheted him away from my throat and onto the speedometer face where he sat between 130-150kmph for 75min eyeballing me.

I had the opportunity to see his soft underbelly with it's distinct yellow markings, he was almost translucent and so very fragile.    The little boy across the road wasn't really impressed and just wanted to know whether I could find another one, while he backed away cautiously.    He was safely transferred to the birdbath in a canned fruit bottle, alas, before I could “shoot” him he leapt into the poison ivy. I hope he likes Worcester, his chances of being Prince Charming were greater in my Arums in Onrus, but, here there’re lots of mosquitoes on a balmy evening.  If I'd had a wart I would blow it to the full moon tonight.

We look forward to his “harsh nasal bleat every half second” when we put our feet up on the railing to watch the Mouse birds, Cape Robins and the bright yellow Weavers' exuberant bathing habits!

We’ve been lucky to have a Cape Mountain frog in our pond for at least a year, on occasion he’s had a companion for a day or two but generally he’s our bachelor boy and the first thing we look out for.

The great mystery will always be the question of how he managed to find his way into the motorcar as they're really quite elusive.   Sadly, since reading more about the Arum frog I wonder whether he'll survive the Klein Karoo?

To the Vietnamese a  toad is the uncle of the Sky. According to an ancient Vietnamese story, whenever toads grind their teeth, it is going to rain. And they also have a famous quote "Sitting at the bottom of wells, frogs think that the sky is as wide as a lid", which ridicules someone who is narrow-minded and without knowledge but arrogant.

 "When the snake gets old, the frog gets him by the balls." Iranian proverb my all time favourite!

 “She dotes on poetry, sir. She adores it; I may say that her whole soul and mind are wound up, and entwined with it. She has produced some delightful pieces, herself, sir. You may have met with her" 'Ode to an Expiring Frog,'
― Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers