Today it’s Save the Frogs Day!
You might not know this, but I have ranidaphobia (phobia of frogs). I get that people can’t understand how anyone can be afraid of them – what’s scary about frogs, right? I don’t know, I can’t really explain it.
It’s the legs, those folded creepy legs that at any second can unfold and make the freaky little thing jump farther than a kangaroo *shudder*.
People think I’m joking, and again I get that, because how can anyone be afraid of frogs? But I have nightmares about frogs. I very seldom have bad dreams, but if I do, you can bet your arse it’s filled with horrific little creatures jumping around.
In the morning when I’m walking to work, I often see frogs who have been run over by cars in the early morning hours, and my entire body tenses even before I can see if it truly is a frog. Just seeing something farther ahead on the road makes the hairs on my body stand on end. If it is a frog it doesn’t matter that it’s dead and I know it won’t jump, my heart starts banging as if I’m running for my life, and I sort of am because I have to stay as far away from the dead little monster as I can, traffic be damned. Luckily I live in the middle of nowhere so when I say traffic, we’re talking the occasional car.
When I’m out walking, I often have to take detours because a frog is blocking my way. Again, we live in the middle of nowhere so I’m often walking in the woods. Since I was born without a sense of direction, taking detours in the woods often makes for hours of walking LOL.
So you’d think I’d be all for killing the frogs, right? I’m not.
More than 30% of the species are at risk of extinction. Frogs are important both as prey and predators, tadpoles help regulate blooms and algal contamination, and grown frogs eat insects like mosquitoes and therefore help us with diseases like malaria, Dengue fever and Zika. They’re important! And since they absorb toxins, chemicals and bacteria through their skin, they’re powerless to withstand what we’re poisoning them with.
I’m not gonna bore you with more facts, but please, think of the frogs, offputting as they may be.
To celebrate this day I’ve re-read not one but two of my favourite books. First out is Frog by Mary Calmes. Frog has nothing to do with actual frogs but with a title like that it has to be included in a Save The Frogs Day post.
Weber is a bull rider, a little rough around edges, and in love with a neurosurgeon. He knows he’s not up to standard, and even less so when he has to give up his dream of being a professional bull rider after one too many injuries.
Cy, the neurosurgeon, has everything but the one thing he wants – Web. He doesn’t care if Web is a bull rider or a nanny, all he wants is to come home to his man, so when Web once again shows up at his doorstep, he intends to keep him forever.
I love this, it’s a little different from the other Calmes books, but still, very much a Calmes book if that makes sense, I know it doesn’t. Read it if you haven’t!
Weber Yates’s dreams of stardom are about to be reduced to a ranch hand’s job in Texas, and his one relationship is with a guy so far out of his league he might as well be on the moon. Or at least in San Francisco, where Weber stops to see him one last time before settling down to the humble, lonely life he figures a frog like him has coming.
Cyrus Benning is a successful neurosurgeon, so details are never lost on him. He spotted the prince in a broken-down bull rider’s clothing from day one. But watching Weber walk out on him keeps getting harder, and he’s not sure how much more his heart can take. Now Cyrus has one last chance to prove to Weber that it’s not Weber’s job that makes him Cyrus’s perfect man, it’s Weber himself. With the help of his sister’s newly broken family, he’s ready to show Weber that the home the man’s been searching for has always been right there, with him. Cyrus might have laid down an ultimatum once, but now it’s turned into a vow-he’s never going to let Weber out of his life again.
Second out is Clear Water by Amy Lane. I was talking about this book a few weeks ago when I was talking about eco-warriors.
Patrick is a spaz, and he’s hooked up with the wrong guy. One night, his boyfriend slips him a roofie and drives his car into the river with Patrick passed out inside. Whiskey, a field biologist out for a late night walk, sees it happen and dives in to save Patrick. (While going through episodes of Mythbusters in his head LOL)
Patrick who doesn’t want to go home to his judgemental father stays on Whiskey’s houseboat with Fly Bait (the lovely Freya), Whiskey’s lab partner. Together they spend a summer studying two-headed frogs and try to find out what’s causing the anomalies in the bullfrog population.
This is another absolute favourite of mine. I just love Whiskey and Fly Bait, and despite ranidaphobia and a general dislike of insects and stuff this books has me thinking I should’ve become a biologist (though in reality, I’d make a terrible one).
I could read this book over and over, and I doubt I’d grow bored of it.
Meet Patrick Cleary; party boy, loser, and spaz. Patrick’s been trying desperately to transform himself, and the results have been so spectacular, they’ve almost killed him. Meet Wes “Whiskey” Keenan; he’s a field biologist wondering if it’s time to settle down. When the worst day of Patrick’s life ends with Whiskey saving it, Patrick and Whiskey find themselves sharing company and an impossibly small berth on the world’s tackiest houseboat.
Patrick needs to get his life together and Whiskey wants to help but Patrick is not entirely convinced it’s doable. He’s pretty sure he’s a freak of nature. But Whiskey, who works with real freaks of nature, thinks all Patrick needs is a little help to see the absolute beauty inside his spastic self, and Whiskey is all about volunteering. Between anomalous frogs, a homicidal ex-boyfriend, and Patrick’s own hangups, Whiskey’s going to need all of his patience and Patrick’s going to need to find the best of himself before these two men ever see Clear Water.
There you have it. Now go out and do something to save the frogs!
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Ofelia Grand 