The Frogs are Croaking

Though all of us know that frogs and birds are in the middle of a massive die-off worldwide for at least the last 20 years that is not what I'm writing about.

I'm writing about frogs still alive and croaking in the rain. Today I got turned around because of low clouds turning into fog on the ground in my normal almost daily walk through the pine and oak and fern forest surrounding my home on the Northern California Coast. Since it has been raining now most of the week the dogs (2) were anxious to get out into the wet interesting smelling forest. So I obliged them by throwing them into the back of my suv and driving 5 minutes to my favorite trails so they wouldn't have to deal with traffic and so I could safely take them off leash.(It took me about 1 to 2 years to train them effectively to do this). So if you haven't trained your dog for this and to be friendly not only to any humans they meet and any dogs including difficult ones then you might consider keeping them on leash until you have confidence in them in all situations. Even now, my daughter's female corgi gets spooked by a person riding through the forest on a bicycle accompanied by a dog and runs away back to the car. The first incident of this kind of thing cost about $3000 to repair one of her back legs that she permanently pulled a muscle on and about 2 months recuperation with cone etc. So needless to say my big dog(Australian Shepard-German Shepard mix) who is very smart is a much better choice than my daughter's female corgi for going off leash as nothing even domesticated wolves off leash don't spook him. He fits right in. However, he is a man's dog and the corgi is a love which women really like.

Anyway, today I got thrown off by the low hanging clouds and rain and mist and when I went down into a canyon and came back up into the trees I realized something was wrong and that I wasn't where I thought I was. I knew this wasn't a problem because this forest is bounded by roads or ocean on all sides that are eventually paved so finding where I was was only a matter of time. Since I had no appointments it was sort of like being over 9 or 10 when this sort of thing happened a lot. I always liked getting lost within an area where I always could discover eventually where I was and not die. This was the essence of adventure for a very young man in a boys body. So even though I realized I had been turned around somehow I found myself enjoying the adventure and the unknown like when I was a boy. Eventually when I hit a road I was amazed at where I really was and couldn't believe that I had been turned around about 180 degrees from where I thought I was. Since I was back near my car I decided to end my trek when I heard from a nearby valley or canyon 50 to 100 frogs croaking together. Knowing that this is a mating call it made me very happy to hear this because there would likely be more frogs next year because of this. It also made me happy to know that this area was still healthy enough for frogs to live in, an ecologically safe place to raise children. This gave me great peace as I returned with my dogs to my SUV.