Taxidermy

I'm trying to slap up a post before we leave on a trip. More on the trip after the trip. And yes, things look a bit different here. The brown was looking muddy to me.

ANYWAY, on to my subject.

I was dusting the Spouse's office and I decided to photograph these frogs, who live on his desk, perpetually standing there drinking...water! What else do frogs drink?

Years ago before the Spouse moved west, he house-sat for a colleague while she went to Vietnam. This woman was single, fortyish, and somewhat of a "hippie," according to the Spouse. Anyway, he remembers that her freezer was full of Lean Cuisine and that her cat died - slowly and messily - while he was staying at her place.

"It was awful," the Spouse recalls.

When she returned, he explained the cat situation (she was sad, but understanding), and told her he really liked her taxidermed frogs. He thought they were hilarious. So she gave them to him as payment for his trouble, and for the cat grief.

So here they sit in his office, one decade-and-a-half later.

Thing turned out nicely for the woman, as the Spouse last heard. Every day she used to walk on the UL campus during lunch, and one day (I may be embroidering a bit here), the UPS truck, after checking in at the guard shack, accelerated past her as it drove toward the building. Suddenly, brakes screeching, the truck jerked to a halt and the driver leapt out and approached the walking lady who no longer had a cat or stuffed frogs.

They were old school friends, and they reunited joyously and eventually married.

See how one frog is slyly taking a drink while reaching to touch his friend's hand? Sweet, eh?