Meet the New Frog!

Elmerthefrog, tentatively identified as a Gray Tree Frog (click on photo for link to information).

We have a new frog in the vivarium. I caught Elmerthefrog on my patio. As usual, my cat Collage found the amphibian for me. She also lets me know when there is a treefrog at the front door window. The treefrog, however, is a bit smarter than this chap. I was probably only able to catch Elmerthefrog because when I got the mason jar and opened the screen door, the screen door pinched his foot to the glass door. I was horrified to see the frog's form splayed out on the glass and reclosed the screen to set it free. Wounded, he was easy prey.
When I put him in the vivarium the next day (he was reluctant to leave the jar, but I upended it in the tank and eventually he let go), he went right for the same rock the leopard frog lives under. I spend hours showing kids the frog that lives under the rock and explaining "nocturnal" to them. "When we turn off the lights and go home at night, he probably comes out and has a big party!"
We also have tadpoles (both toad and frog, I think) and we're watching the back legs appear on the toad ones. This is so exciting and the kids love it.
Why do we have this in the library? Just an attraction? Well, this enables us to speak to the shy child. We don't have to look directly at each other. We can both focus on something in the tank and talk about it. Having been a shy child (oh, sure, I know none of you believe this), I understand how important this can be, to get a child started talking.
The original idea had been to have a bunny, but frankly, if a frog or toad croaks (so to speak, ahem), it's no big deal to me. We had Mr. Toad for two years. Then he "went home." One astute little girl responded to that euphemism recently with, "You mean he died." Yes, he died. Then he was taken "home." If a bunny "went home," I'd just freak. It would be the same as one of my cats dying, and I didn't take that well either time.
I also don't have a big problem when one of the "pets" (say, the crawdad) eats one of the others (say, the ubiquitous and mostly useless mosquito fish that people optimistically put in their ponds, etc. hoping they will eat mosquito larvae but in fact they eat anything that wiggles, including their own babies and the babies of more interesting fish and amphibians). My lovely co-workers go on and on about "murder" and "ichthycide" and it is a little gross when the crawdad rips the head off of a small fish, but it's interesting, too, ya know?
The crawdads are endlessly fascinating. I brought one huge one in I found in my street. You read that correctly, it was crossing the road and, I might add, it raised its puny front claws threateningly at my car! I drove home, got a gallon pickle jar (handy thing, those!) and a pancake flipper and went back to get it. It was all clumpy on the bottom of the tail and I thought it was just muddy (they are called "mudbugs"), but it turned out to be hundreds of perfect miniature baby crayfish! What a great display that made! Once in the water in the bottom of the jar, the babies let go and swam all over. If I jiggled the jar, they reattached to the momma. I was able to return them to the pond the next day.
That was just a pickle jar and some local fauna! We also have walking sticks at my house, so I put them in the giant pickle jar and bring them in for a day or so. Not only does this help communicate with kids who look on adults with the wary eye, but it may even give them a subject to read about: animals, bugs, pets, biomes ... the list goes on.
Get some critters in your library!