One day Nate found a frog in the backyard of his new house and brought him home to show his mother.
"Mom, look what I found! I'll give you a hint...it HOPS! Can I make him my pet? Puh-LEEZ?!?!", he asked, batting his eyes with his free hand tucked under his cute little chin.
I paused...knowing the implications of such an agreement, but teetering with the fond memories of myself at his age capturing frogs, bugs, caterpillars and the like to name and call my own. Until, that is, they escaped, or were accidently squished loved to death, or shriveled up because they needed water or food or something I had neglected to provide them. Anyway, I caved and told him we'd need to Google how to care for him and find out what he eats. In the meantime, we needed to find him somewhere to stay.
Within seconds, my giddy little boy was (not even kidding here), shaking the froggy's little hand (paw? foot?) saying, "Hi, Froggy! I'm Nate! You're going to be my pet!" He promptly made a home for him in his Little Tykes toolbox, closed the door, and peeked in saying, "Don't you die on me!". Nice.
We put Froggy, who at this time was named "Nokie" by Nate, into a bucket. The boys added some small touches of home (rocks, grass, dirt) and we gave Nokie just enough water to get wet in if he wanted.
Nate loved having Nokie (who by this time, had been renamed "Kooky" or "Nookie" or something...) and decided to put him in his own "sun protector" and take him for a ride in his Cozy Coupe. He laid under the tree with him (whose name at this point I've lost track of!) and watched him hop around.
We reminded Nate to put Froggy back into his "home" from time to time so as not to torture the poor creature and to give him some water and peace.
What a day of adventure these two had! I think Nate taught Froggy all he knew about firefighting, saving people, and peeing in the woods. It was a match made in heaven!
The End.
