Ernie and Bert
We were exploring the side roads near Buchloe at night when Ana and I found them—two small frogs near John’s place. We caught them without thinking, just grabbed them from the grass. The moment I held them, I felt like a kid again, that pure uncomplicated thing you get when something unexpected and alive is in your hands. They were cute, genuinely cute, in that serious way frogs have.
We brought them home and named them Ernie and Bert. But then I looked it up—turns out you can’t keep native frogs. It’s illegal, something about the ecosystem. So we released them back into the grass, which was the right call even though I wasn’t ready to let them go.
I still want frogs someday. Real ones in a terrarium, set up right. There’s something I like about watching them, the way they just sit there until suddenly they don’t. But it has to be done properly. Not like Ernie and Bert.