FROGS

For some reason, unknown to us, frogs have been visiting our home on a nightly basis. Almost every evening, without warning, we notice a large frog in the middle of our living room floor. The doors are shut tight, there is no discernable passageway to the outside and we cannot figure out how they get in. Once is interested, twice is unusual, three times a bit bizarre but every night? We usher the frog outside each evening, shut the door behind him/her and they are out for the evening, only to magically return the next evening.

We are starting to think it is in some way symbolic. Isn’t there some Chinese symbolism in a visitation by frogs such as this? When I mentioned this to a friend he, in a very practical manner said, “I will tell you what a visiting frog means, it means that you are going to have visiting dangerous snakes trying to eat those frogs!” Not settling news given that there are some very dangerous snakes in the area including the black mamba, Mozambican spitting cobra, puff adder and gaboon adder. A black mamba bite has the potential to paralyze you in a matter of 15-45 minutes depending on the amount of envenomation….a bit frightening indeed. The anti-venom is available but not that easy to obtain. I took a course in snake first aid in southern Africa, fascinating and frightening at the same time. The others can do some damage but none as deadly as a black mamba. Fortunately, they are shy and skittish. It is rare to see one. The three of us who took the course soon after went camping in a beautiful nearby park. We asked a friend from here if there were any black mambas in the park. She flatly replied that our chances of seeing one were zero. She had been hiking in the park hundreds of times and never seen any snakes. The first evening we arrived to our campsite after about a 7 km hike, set up camp and were relaxing around the campsite. Paul started going for a walk down the trail. Soon after I heard some talking that turned out to be yelling. I heard him yelling, “Dewey, come over here”. I thought he might be having some trouble so I jogged down the trail to find him excitingly pointing out about a 5 foot black mamba that he had come across. I asked him, “and I am coming this way because….????” We watched it slither into the grass and up a rock face knowing full well of its potential and potency of lethal envenomation. Frightening. We camped two nights and hiked all over the park and it was a great weekend. We didn’t see any more snakes but believe me, we were watching out steps.