Leap Frog

Current mood: bouncy

Again, much like Mr. Rogers, I have a morning routine.

When the alarm goes off, Beau stands on my chest and pushes his wet nose into my cheek giving me my daily does of good-morning sugar. Sometimes we play fight for a while, sometimes I hit the snooze button and we repeat the routine... but at some point I always reach for my glasses on the bedside table. And when that happens, Beau knows what time it is – time to hit the back alley!

As soon as he sees my hand go for my eye glasses, he shoves off the bed at lightning speed, always amazing me with how quickly he can go from heavy-eyed and yawning to wide-eyed and bouncing. I grab my robe and slippers and follow him down the stairs and to the back alley where he plays, runs, leg-lifts, growls at squirrels in the palms, huffs at passing hot-air balloons and begs Jake (the neighbor dog) to come out and play.

This morning, my Beaudog happened to find himself a leap-happy frog.

I wished like everything that I'd had my camera to capture the scene on video. I laughed and giggled and, taking a lesson from Beau, immediately went from heavy-eyed and yawning to wide-eyed and bouncing.

When he first found the frog, he stood back and stared as it sat in the grass beneath a tree. Before long, Beau's curiosity got the better of him and he cautiously lowered his nose to investigate the odd-looking creature.

The moment that wet nose made contact with the frog's back, the frog leaped a good 2 feet leaving the grass and entering the asphalt of the alley. At the same moment, Beau leaped a good 2 feet leaving the grass and ramming his backside against the tree. With wide eyes, he twirled around to see what had grabbed his bottom. I saw his brain process, "It's just a tree, it's okay. Back to the matter at hand. Now, where did that little hoppy critter go?!"

For at least three minutes, Beau and the frog played a game of... well, um... for lack of a better description – leap frog! Beau put his nose to the frog, the frog leaped, Beau leaped. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Straight down the alley.

Eventually, Beau decided to try something new. Bit by bit and ever so vigilantly, he extended his front paw to touch the frog. As expected, the frog's reaction was the same. Leap. However, Beau's reaction was not the same. With his paw still lifted, he stared at his paw as if it had been stung, glanced to the frog's new position and finally set his paw back down on the ground.

His face seemed to say, "I'll not be trying THAT again." Perhaps the frog was slimy or lumpy. But clearly not what he'd been expecting.

So instead, he refocused on trying to get at least one good sniff of the frog. Nose touch, leap, nose touch, leap.

And then came the moment of truth... Beau had seen him, smelled him, touched him. The next logical step was to... taste him.

While I had enjoyed playing witness to dog-meets-frog, I feared what might happen if Beau decided to pass on the kibble and instead partake of frog for breakfast. So yes, worry-wort Mom put a halt to the game immediately. He managed just one quick taste (not harming the frog, folks) before I took his toy away.

Not two minutes later, Beau had the dreaded foamy-mouth syndrome that always comes when a dog enjoys his first frog-ala-mode.

I really wish I'd had my camera handy. The scene was straight out of Saturday morning cartoons.