Beyond Dustbunnies

Those who have been guests in my home very much have doubtless heard me refer to the fuzzy lumpy unidentifiable THINGS under the beds, in the corner behind the desk, etc. as "dust dragons"...because I invariably have some that are far too large to be considered "dustbunnies". When dissected, they prove to be primarily cat and dog hair, sometimes a long strand of my own, bits of blanket fuzz, dust, and other little shreds of stuff. As long as my allergy meds are working, they are quite harmless, and I don't place a terribly high priority on eradicating them unless they somehow manage to crawl out from under their hiding places and catch my attention. That generally only happens when I'm sweeping the floor for company, or rearranging the furniture.

Usually they don't move of their own volition.

Last night I was peacefully typing at the computer, minding my o

wn business, when a slight motion caught my peripheral vision. Something gray and fuzzy, about the size of a hen's egg, was on the floor at the base of the desk, near my chair. I turned to view it properly with my bifocals. Just a dustbunny, primary of Mike-the-cat origin.

AND THEN IT MOVED AGAIN, not very far, an awkward hoppish sort of motion brought up short, like a mechanical toy that is winding down.

I did a double-take. Looked again. Just a Mike dustbunny; my eyes must be playing...AND IT MOVED YET AGAIN.

I bent over and looked closely at it. I could just barely discern the poor little creature who was engulfed in a normal dustbunny: a small green tree frog. It looked rather dehydrated under all the cat hair.

I scooped it up and took it to the garage (where it could get outside if it escaped during its rescue), and gave it a bath in the bowl that the garage toads use. After much de-fluffing, I got down to just normal non-furry frog skin.

I was going to leave it in the garage, or just outside the garage door, but then it occurred to me that there would be plenty of moisture and good bug hunting around the light in the washhouse, so I took it out there. To my surprise, there was another, larger tree frog stationed there, hunting bugs!