My Friend Lucky (Story Time!)

(This is a pretty long story but it's a lot of fun and I hope you'll read it!! :)

I would like all of you to meet my new friend, Lucky! He is the last survivor from our seasonal pond, which is, as of today, dry.

For the past month, I've been watching the level of our little pond go down as the rain has dropped off and stopped altogether. Last week the level was so low you had to go down and look to find it. A couple of days ago I looked and saw that yes...there were still tadpoles swimming around in the shrinking puddle, but they weren't big enough to leave the water yet. I fretted. I felt sad. Yes, I understand that this happens every year, and it's nature's way to make sure the frogs who mate first will have a better chance of their offspring surviving. But darn it...I love the little guys. It breaks my heart every year when I know the pond is drying up and countless little "woggy's" will die.

Last night I dreamed about the pollywogs all night long. And this morning I made a decision when I got up. I was going to march down to the pond, and if there was any water left, I would save every pollywog I could catch.

So, I went down to see, and I was really worried...it was hot yesterday and the water might all be gone. But I bravely went to look. To my surprised joy, there was about two gallons of muddy water left, with lots of pollywogs trying to keep wet. They shared space with other critters too--water boatsmen, some beetles and other animals too.

I came ready to save them, with a 5-gallon bucket half full of water, on our hand truck so I could bring them up to the house. I used a fish net on a long handle and began scooping them from the mucky water...SO MANY BABIES!!! Dozens and dozens of squirming tadpoles and into the bucket they went. I got as many as I could and also got lots of their mud too.

I put the lid on and trudged up our road to the house, where I had a plastic kiddy pool waiting with fresh water in it, ready to be the new pond! I carefully poured the bucket into the pool and washed the mud in as well.

WHEEEEEE!!!!! Happy little swimmers EVERYWHERE!!! I think there must be over 100 babies in various stages of development, and it was an incredible feeling to see them able to swim in a nice amount of water again. The water skeeters were skeetering, the beetles were beetling...err...swimming around, and I felt really, really good about my decision to save them.

I went inside and asked Steve to come out to see a surprise, and he chuckled when he saw what I'd done, but with big smiles, we watched the little guys having a nice time, and then he said, "Hey, let's add an air stone to make sure they have lots of oxygen in the water!" A few minutes later we had a power cord running over to the pond and bubbles dancing merrily away and giving some nice circulation to the water as well.

I wasn't done though. After breakfast I went down to see if I could gather the ones I didn't catch the first time around, and came back to the house with dozens more, and confident that I probably got them all.

Tonight, at about 6 or so, I filled a little bowl with water and went back down for one last check. As I thought, the pond was dry. All that was left was soft mud. And...one last pollywog laying on the mud. I rushed over and gently picked him up, cooing sadly because he was dead for sure. I put him in the water because I didn't know what else to do.

What do you know? He wiggled his little tail and swam around in a circle and then up to the surface for a bubble of air before sinking down to the bottom again to rest in relief. HOORAY for Lucky!!!! :D I nearly danced with joy with a tear in my eye!

Up to the house we went, with me smiling all the way and watching him swim around. I brought him up to our office to introduce Steve to Lucky, who was very happy to hear our story. And finally, Lucky and I went to the new pond and I poured him and his water into the pool, where he joined all of his friends!

What a very nice day. :) (And thank you for taking the time to read my story!)

For the continuing story, jump forward to November and read about Lucky's Porta-Pond!

By the way, I've uploaded two other pictures today and I hope you'll visit them too!

Thanks to all of you who have visited and have left comments and favorites! I try to go to all of your pages within a day or two and is a highlight for me to see your beautiful photography! :)