Dead Still

Apologies to animal lovers of all sorts. I made an error in judgment.

We have a fire escape / climb-out window-well in our basement, and it has hosted cats, snakes, assorted insects, and lately (with all this moisture) frogs.

In fact, there was a frog family, if I'm not mistaken, living in that window-well. Three young ones grew from the size of my finger tip to a bit larger than my thumb--and it seemed to happen in just a week! Before I knew it, I could hear them jumping at the window, then sliding down. I could see them jumping two and three feet high, then gravity would bring them back to the window-well.

Well...

Eventually there was only one frog left, and it grew something like three-times the size of my thumb or more. One day last week I noted it was sitting in the corner, looking toward us at the window. I showed my boys. Then, a few days later, I spotted it there again, this time at night, and I shined the flashlight on it so the boys could again see the frog. They were thrilled.

...but a couple days ago, it seemed strange the frog was STILL in the same spot. It died in that spot, my wife suspects, for now it is being consumed by the very insects it would have eaten.

From my vantage point, it seems like that frog just sat to death. (I've seen students do this, and I'll have my hand (seat?) at it this week for in-service, too!) I have some ideas on what happened.

The frog was not as athletic as its two brothers and when it could not jump out as they must have done, it gave up. Complete lethargy. Resignation. "Just let the bugs eat me."

Maybe, the frog was a reincarnation of someone who was so overwrought with longing for life inside our basement that s/he just sat there aching for it, and ultimately ached to death.

Or...the frog was just waiting until that perfect moment, the absolute culmination of sun, moon, moisture and wind that would have made the escape jump perfect.

It may be the frog was brain damaged in an attempted escape jump and just could not get it back together.

Or maybe it was just a very lazy frog.

Anyway, now I have to explain it to my kids and shovel it up...unless I make it an object lesson in natural order, decomposition and all that "rot."