Froggie Went A' Courtin'

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Yesterday after our ride, I was about to put my bike back in the garage when I noticed some crud all over the top of my front derailler, looked like maybe some asphalt-mud splatter. I was about to pick it off with my fingers when some little inner wise-country-girl voice told me to investigate further before I touched it.
It was about an inch and a half around, sort of starfish shaped, and on closer examination I realized it was a frog! It was squished and mummified looking, flattened and stuck on there in a mid-leap position with his little arms wrapped around the derailler. GROSS! I figured out that I must have run over him and he must have stuck on my back tire and then gotten flung right down unto my derailler like a spitball as the tire rotated.

Man was I glad i hadn't started picking him off with my fingers!! I felt bad for him of course. I did consider leaving him on there like a tiny riding mascot/hood ornament type object, but decided against it.
As a singer of traditional ballads, I couldn't help but make a little change to the old folksong as I was cleaning him off my bike with wet paper towels:

Froggie went a' bikin' and he did ride, uh-Huh, uh-Huh
Froggie went a' bikin' and he did ride, uh-Huh, uh-Huh
Froggie went a' bikin' and he did ride,
Rolled out flat like a naugha-hyde, uh-Huh, uh-Huh.

[wannaduacentury]

LOL, that frog liked you a lot. I saw a dead black cat on my club ride this am and yesterday being friday the 13th, must've been his/her superstitious day. Now the cat and frog can rest in peace. Jennifer

[CyclChyk]

Lisa Lisa Lisa - what am I gonna do with you?? That poor little froggie just trying to cross the road (like in the arcade game). Not wanting to hurt anyone; just wanting to frollick in the tall grass; probably had a lady frog and one or two froglets and no life insurance because he thought he was too young for that ever to happen to him........

And along comes Lisa; daydreaming in the sweet smells of daffodils and dandylions and what ever else grows out there in the wild (we just have lots of Kudzu around here); thinking about the latte she will be stopping for in the next 1/2 hour with her DH ever by her side. Doesn't even feel the "THUNK" of flattened frog meat as it wraps itself around her tire (surely it "thunked" more than once to be as flattened as you described).......

At least you didn't run the tribbles over........

[HillSlugger]

Froggie went a' bikin' and he did ride,
Rolled out flat like a naugha-hyde, uh-Huh, uh-Huh.

You are SO twisted I love it!

(I bet the youngsters don't even know what naughahyde is!)

[Kitsune06]

Hmm. Naugas sound a lot like Fauxes... didja know they're hunted for their fur *and* their pearls? ...Not sure where furbearing animals have pearls- I'll leave that to the hunters.
...poor fauxes...


So gross, Lisa, I love it.

[pyxichick]

Lisa,

Reminds me of the time I stopped for gas and found a bird in the grill of my car

And of the time my roommate's newt escaped from the aquarium and we found him months later, all dried up on the bathroom floor.

But I love your song. It's not just any lyricist who can come up with a way to incorporate naugahyde into a song!

[HillSlugger]

Reminds me of the time I stopped for gas and found a bird in the grill of my car

And of the time my roommate's newt escaped from the aquarium and we found him months later, all dried up on the bathroom floor.

I once lost a newt that way, too. My mom found it all dried up under the baseboard heater in her room My mom is so that it didn't even freak her out. I kept that mummified newt for years, until it eventually started to grow fungus.

[CyclChyk]

I kept that mummified newt for years, until it eventually started to grow fungus.

Anyone with toddlers out there, I think this would make an excellent science project...........albeit somewhat gross. You can sock it away now, and in about 4-5 years it should be nice and fuzzy.

[Xrayted]

Anyone with toddlers out there, I think this would make an excellent science project...........albeit somewhat gross. You can sock it away now, and in about 4-5 years it should be nice and fuzzy.

Oh! Sick,sick,sick.

I've done some really weird stuff for the nieces and nephews, but I never went so far as to petrify a critter. (could be cool tho... hmmm)

[Kitsune06]

To properly petrify a critter, you want to lightly cover it with salt and borax. If it manages to dehydrate properly without said aid, and you want to maintain it, sprinkle it with said mixture to keep it from molding, etc and keep it dry.

...please don't ask how I know this.

[CyclChyk]

Geez Kit - the only thing I know how to do is rubberize chicken bones......

I won't ask.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I've done some really weird stuff for the nieces and nephews, but I never went so far as to petrify a critter. (could be cool tho... hmmm)

I used to keep tarantulas. When they grow, they periodically flip over on their backs, wriggle for an hour & molt their old skin and then expand to their new size. The cool thing is that the old skin looks EXACTLY like the spider itself- complete with colors and furry hair, shiny fangs, eye lense covers and everything! If you get the old limp discarded skin before it gets completely dry, you can steam it with a tea kettle so it will be pliable and then you can sort of pose it realistically, propping the parts up with match boxes and toothpicks. Then when it dries it stays in that position and you can remove the props.
I did this a couple of times, and made a scary pose with uplifted front legs and extended fangs of my really large Peruvian Pink-Toe (Morticia) and mounted it in a plexiglass box I made for it and gave it to my nephew years ago. I doubt if he has it anymore. Nobody could believe it was not the actual spider! It was so cool.
I had to give up my 2 beautiful tarantulas when I moved to a smaller place eventually, but I donated them to the entomology department of Cornell University, where my daughter was then getting her entomology degree (like a good mother, I taught her stuff firsthand about bugs and snakes and such from toddlerhood).

[Nanci]

I found a bat in the grill of my truck once...

[pooks]

I had to give up my 2 beautiful tarantulas when I moved to a smaller place

Holy cow -- how big were they?

We have a dried lizard on the shelf right now. Anole, maybe is what it actually is. Anyway my husband found it in the garage, showed it off to everybody, then put it on a shelf of the bookcase where it has resided since.

Pooks

[Bad JuJu]

This is such a weird and cool thread! I envy you those dried tarantula skins, Lisa! The nearest thing to that here is that we occasionally find a naturally-dried peeper (little frog) when cleaning behind heavy pieces of furniture.

When my eldest nephew was 8, I found some owl pellets (bits of fur and bone that owls regurgitate from their meals of small mammals) under a tree near my home. They were already pretty dry, so I packed them carefully and mailed them to him along with a little book about owls. He had a great time telling me about the bones and fur he found as he teased the pellets apart. Now he's 23 and doing his bachelor's degree in microbiology. I like to think it all started with Aunt Judy's owl pellets.