Just Hopping Along

A little over two years ago now, I made a decision to accept a new position. It's still with the same large corporation, but in another unit of the same department. Anyway, they had built a new office tower, and had just opened it when I started there. The place I was at was also moving into a newer larger building, which I have visited, but I was glad I didn't have to go through the move. So I was quite lucky -- I left one place just before the move, and joined a new one just after the move.

The new building was officially opened in the fall of 2007, but there were still workmen doing all the last finishing touches (like replacing cracked windows and warped doors) for quite a few months.

A few of the older staff have retired, and so these prime offices have come available. The senior staff remaining then get first choice of which office they would like. So for the past 2-3 weeks, there has been quite a bit of shifting of offices. It's like musical offices -- we move one out, another moves in to clear up one more office, which someone else moves into, and so on. This involves moving entire offices... all the furniture, art work, books, etc. The senior management people have their own furniture in their own offices, so it's quite involved. But it's all overseen by a very competent organizer, and it all moves like clockwork -- most of the time.

Late on Friday, when one office was almost moved over, and the assistant was cleaning up (the assistants have to do all the work), she discovered something hopping away down the hallway into a corner. It was a little frog! It apparently had been in that office, on the 23rd floor, was disturbed and was trying to find a new place to hide. How long it was here, where it lived, what it ate, we don't know.

It's the cutest little thing. It is a tree frog. There aren't any native tree frogs in our part of the country; there may be some on the west coast. I believe this one is native to south-east Asia, perhaps from Indonesia. It has very long delicate fingers and toes -- with suction cups on the ends. Looks a little like E.T. It's no more than about 5 cm (2 inches) long.

So the assistant took it home, put it into a terrarium and may let it go in spring. However, I don't know if it will survive our winters here. She got some coconut bark for it to hide under, and even a little tub of crickets! These frogs are nocturnal, so she hasn't seen if it is eating any crickets, and it seems to sleep most of the day. In the morning, she finds it on the side of the glass looking very bright and chipper, so she assumes it has found a cricket or two.

So here is a pic of the little darling! It's really quite cute -- in its own way.