Some of you may remember how goofy I’d gotten over the bullfrog who moved into my garden this summer.
I took tons of pictures as he posed on the rocks. I looked for him everyday while watering the plants. I even found myself talking to him. Some of the young campers started coming into the office either in a panic because they didn’t see him on his perch . . . or they came in to report seeing him swimming-sunbathing-hopping-hiding.
Well, this is why I was so in love with that frog; Cooper has a frog. A three legged frog to be exact!
- illustrated by Carl DiRocco
Talk about fate! When I wrote Cooper and Packrat, I’d never had a frog in my garden. Oh, we’d rescued a few from the pool and seen them at the lake, of course. I’d had tons of spring peepers climb the house to eat bugs under my porch light, too. But a garden frog? No.
I lost track of my frog somewhere around the end of August when I started school. I wonder if he sensed summer was at an end and he needed a better place to winter? I’d like to think so.
So tell me, do you have a favorite animal character from the pages of a book? An animal sidekick? A main character? What made them special to you?