Sparky

This is Sparky, a Pacific Tree Frog or Chorus Frog. There are several of these little guys in our yard and they are all named "Sparky".  They earned this moniker when my middle child was part of the weekly bible club AWANA; she was in the Sparks group for kindergarteners lead by the wonderful Mrs. S., an older woman who had finished raising her children but still wanted to be around youngsters. One spring evening the Sparks or Sparkys as they were affectionately known went on a field trip to a nearby park/nature area. My little kinder was so excited, she loved being outdoors and this nature area had a little creek with an easy access point for safe and harmless creek exploration.  When the field trip was over and I arrived at the creek area to pick up my daughter, Mrs. S intercepted me before I had a chance to walk the few feet  down to where my daughter was happily standing with her friends. She had a worried look on her face and apologetically and nervously explained to me that she just couldn't keep my daughter out of the creek and well..."she was so sorry for what my daughter wanted to bring home." 

At about this same moment my daughter saw me and came gleefully running toward me holding a Styrofoam cup in her hand. Excitedly, she showed me her treasure...6 little frogs! I quickly reassured Mrs. S that I was in no way worried about the little frogs and I had no problem with my daughter playing in the creek...we lived less than 2 miles from this nature area, along another section of this same creek. In fact, most nights, we could hear the croaking of the many, many little frogs that made the creek area their home. 

I let my daughter know that her new found friends were more than welcome to come home with us and they could in fact, live in our back yard. And there they and their descendants have been ever since.