Frankly, He's a Frog

Johnny's friend Nicholas gave him a pet bull frog this weekend. His name was Teddy. Johnny renamed him Frankly, because, as everyone knows, naming a pet is half the fun. And because, frankly, he's a frog.

I think karma brought us this little creature, a tadpole that outgrew his aquarium when he sprouted legs.

We found a frog in a compost pile at Rock Creek on Wednesday. Johnny wanted to bring him home. But this creek is so dead--due to chemical runoff from yards and unnatural landscaping that creates too much water when it rains and too little when it shines--that it seemed wrong to take away the only sign of life I've seen here since childhood. There used to be bluegill and crawdads in this section of the creek, but no more. New back-to-nature landscaping, however, is designed to restore life in the creek.

Anyway, I told Johnny not the above information, lest he fall asleep, but that the froggy's brother lived here and they wanted to stay together. Initially, Johnny planned to find the brother and capture him, too. But after carrying froggy in his hand and showing him off to the big boys, he released him on a rock. The frog just sat there, as if not believing that his freedom was real. Then, he leaped in the water and swam away.

Johnny really wanted that pet frog, he remarked, regretting his moment of wanton generosity. Then two days later, he had one that was born in a pet store and raised as a pet. It is frog karma, frankly.

That's what I think, anyway. To a five-year-old, Frankly is a companion for the Rock Creek frog, who he never should have let go. "If you love someone, set them free" is just not in a kid's musical repertoire.

On a different note, Star Magazine in the Kansas City Star let me write an article for them on cheap things to do with your kids this summer. You can see it in today's paper or at http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/living/special_packages/starmagazine. Cheapness is a subject I'm an expert in, thanks to training from my dad, who once recycled the toilet paper from a T.P. job in our front yard. The teenagers thought it was a prank; my dad saw it as a donation.

My mom is also in The Kansas City Star today, smelling a flower on the society page--What else is new? She was touring a designer showcase home with her friend Patty.

Other articles that came out recently were one on pampered pets in the April KC Magazine, and an article called "Farm Fresh" in the May/June Kansas City Homes and Gardens, available at www.kchandg.com. I also edited an annual report you might like to read. Not really, but if you have an annual report or other business writing you'd like me to read and edit, I'd love to do it.