Wednesday, June 21, 2006

I Killed the Tadpoles

Last week my wife and youngest son went to a park and caught a whole bucket full of tadpoles. They cared for the tadpoles for almost a week and they seemed to be surviving okay. The problem was that they were in a bucket that I use for mixing paints, drywall mud, or other things around the house. So, being the great father that I am, I set up a fish tank for the tad poles and made the transfer into their new and improved environment.

Within an hour of improving the lives of these tadpoles, all but two of them were dead and the others were on their way to heaven as well. So I did what any good parent/ husband would do. I went to that same park that night and, in the dark, I caught even more tadpoles and two frogs to add to the collection. My boys are completely satisfied with the fish tank/ frog aquarium now and so far all of the new tadpoles are flourishing.

Our only mishap so far was one of the frogs turned white yesterday. Apparently it had died sometime in the morning and turned white in the process. With one frog and 20 tadpoles remaining, I think we are doing alright. The lesson learned... if you have a family pet, make sure it is generic looking so if you kill it on accident you can find a replacement and no one will know. Obviously this is harder with real animals like dogs, but fish, frogs, turtles, mice, and cats are all perfectly replaceable.

3 comments:

Mike said...

Tadpole Killer sounds like a garage band. And I assume that the boys don't read the blog, yet.

Kevin said...

Hopefully if you accidently kill the family cat you won't spend your evening searching the neighborhood for the perfect color combo. Of course you could use your paints.

Ninjanun said...

That didn't work so well in Meet the Parents.

And I beg to differ about turtles (and cats, but obviously, you were joking). My brother has two turtles that he's had since we were both little kids. No way would you be able to replace those without him noticing.

Sometimes, I think animals are more unique than people.