By blackmountaincycles,
Filed under: Uncategorized
Yes, you read that right. Some shops have shop dogs. I have a shop frog. A Pacific Tree Frog, or Pacific Chorus Frog to be precise. He (and I know it’s a he because only the hes croak) showed up early last fall. I walked into the bathroom and there he was at eye level on the top of the ladder. It’s eye level if you are 6’3″ and it’s a 6′ ladder. I thought “what the hell is this guy doing in here?” I scooped him up and deposited him in the garden out in front of the shop. My good deed of releasing him back into the wild done. Or so I thought.
Next day he’s back on the ladder. Well, okay. If that’s the way you want it, you got it. I started taking photos of him whenever I saw him and posting them to the Facebook. Folks dug him. A friend of mine named him Floyd Renfield. Floyd just because and Renfield after the fly-eating character Renfield in “Dracula.”
I told a herpetologist friend about him last October or November. He said enjoy it while you can because frog breeding season is coming up and he will be out of here in search of a mate down in the wetlands about 1/4 – 1/2 mile from the shop. Sure enough, one day in November he’s gone. Not unusual because he’s not there every day. But one day turns to one week and that turns to one month and that turns to 6 months.
Every day, I’d glance to the ladder out of habit. Did that until May 17 of this year with no sighting. Just under six months since Floyd was last seen and there he is on that day in May. My herpetologist friend was pretty amazed the frog came back. Pretty sure it’s the same one. The markings are saying same frog. And now three months later, he’s a regular in the bathroom on the ladder next to the sink. When he’s not taking care of the fly and spider population or on the ladder, I think he resides within the sink in the overflow because he came blasting out one day while I was rinsing the coffee pot.
So now it’s three months until November when he headed out for the frog breeding ground last year. It will be interesting to see if he shows up again next spring. There’s a full set of Floyd photos on my flickr page, but here’s a few.
I think this is the first photo I took back in September, 2012. Still had long hair then.
He spent some time bar hopping.
Exfoliating.
What are you looking at?
Wall crawler.
Can I get to the top of the ladder in one leap?
Frogs don’t stick too good to mirrors.
Contemplating how to turn the water on.
(What’s playing: Peter Case Something’s Coming)
9 responses to “Shop frog…”
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Gnarley,
you gotta incorporate Floyd into your logo, or at least on your t-shirts. Perfect mascot!
Hope you're well. You sound like you're having a great time up there
Huggs,
LB
That is so awesome. I love those frogs. There is a little wet patch along one of my regular trails where the Pacific Chorus frogs "hook up" and I often hear them as I approach on my bike. Then they hear the crunch of my tires and get real quiet. I'd second the motion for a BMC frog shirt.
Uh…Sport?
tj
oh and you need one of these on the new shirts…
http://allaboutfrogs.org/gallery/frogstuff/ascii.html
so if you listen very carefully when he makes sounds do his frog calls sound like this…
NARBS…NARBS…NARBS…NARBS…
not a real bike shop
I've been following Floyd's antics all along. It is a really cool thing, for some strange reason. He is a beautiful critter, I'll say that much.
Shop tees with Floyd on 'em is an ace idea.
I love how this post came directly after the "Not A Bike Shop" post.
It's because of posts like these and the unique services/products you offer, that I try and visit your shop every time I'm in the area (even in the middle of a brevet!).
It's kinda hard to ignore his material of choice is aluminum. 🙂
Way cool. 12 pics and you've got a calendar right there with funny captions and all. Brilliant!