Guess What - Another Critter Tale

I got up the other day just after sunrise. By the time I'd opened up the house to let some cool air in - it'd been a horribly hot night after a 39 C day - and fed and medicated the cat the sun was already starting to bite so I found myself a cool spot to read the paper. Yes, we still get a newspaper. Pisces can't bring himself to give it up. I heard a couple of bangs and realised that the neighbours behind us - they are not the quietest of folk - were out in the yard so I assumed it was them especially after they started using a power tool of some sort. It was too early - you're not supposed to use tools before seven - but there wasn't really anything I could do about it and it was only a little while before seven by then.

Back to my paper. More thumps. What were they doing? The power tool stopped and the neighbours switched to loud conversation. I often wonder if they know or care that we know all about their private affairs. I certainly have no desire to know the details of their private life but it's impossible not to hear sometimes unless we close the doors and don't get me started on their barking dogs, Anyhow they finally went inside - but the thumps continued getting more and more frequent.

So off I went outside to try to track it down. Weirdly it seemed to be coming from an open metal rubbish bin Pisces had left on the edge of the veranda. What could it be? The sun was really hot now - obviously we were in for another scorcher. Pisces was up by then and came out to join me. Was it some sort of effect of the sun on the metal, he wondered. I went over and looked in. I couldn't see anything except for a few plant fragments. I touched the outside and it was quite hot. Maybe he was right. Then, as I turned away, I caught sight of a movement accompanied by another thump. Back I went to look again - and there was a small frog in the process of launching itself up. It hit the side of the bin with a resounding thump and fell back again.

We have a number of froggy residents in the garden, some in the pond but others have set up home in flower pots and I keep a bowl of water for them in a shady spot. I thought this fellow needed some recuperation time without having to jostle for a place among the larger ones in the pond so I took it to the bowl where it sat for a moment on the edge of the bin before making a break for it. Since it looked quite dehydrated I hope it came back and luxuriated in the water after I left.

The question of how it came to be in the bin is still something of a mystery, though. It obviously couldn't jump high enough to land in it and there was nothing that we could see near the bin that we thought it could fall in from. Let's hope it learned its lesson is all I can say.