Frog in my house

Living in the Japanese countryside means my backyard is basically rice paddies. Rice paddies are full of water, so they attract lots of bugs, and frogs. Starting a month or two ago, the “frog times”(self created name) started. That’s when I can hear the thousands or perhaps millions? Of frogs making their frog ribbit ribbit sounds every night. It’s also when I start seeing them pop up on my kitchen windows. All those bugs drawn to the light inside my house become a buffet just waiting outside, and the frogs know it. They’ll climb right up, sometimes sticking to the glass, other times just chilling on the tree next to the window.

On this day however, as I was walking through my kitchen in the dark getting ready to go to sleep I felt something brush against my foot. At first I thought it was a house centipede, since I get a lot of those in my house, and I rushed for my bug spray. I usually let them live since they eat other bugs, but this one started me and I needed revenge.

When I flicked on the light, ready for battle, I found it wasn’t an alien-looking centipede at all. It was a tiny, perfect, and very cute Japanese Tree Frog. I have no idea how it got in, but I’m guessing it climbed the overgrown tree next to my house and slipped in through the ventilation fan.

“You have to catch it!” said my girlfriend over the phone. Taking her advice, I gently coaxed the frog into a glass jar.My future with this little guy flashed before my eyes. I imagined him getting bigger and bigger. Would I need to buy an aquarium? How long do frogs even live? I named him froggy.

Unfortunately my dreams were shattered almost immediately after my girlfriend read the google search result “they only eat live food”. The reality of trying to catch live flies for the froggy hit me. I realized I was far too lazy to raise a frog. I took him outside and released him into the darkness to hopefully fight another day, and more importantly, not get eaten by the stray cat I’d seen earlier.