A Book (or Two) No Family Should be Without...

Spring at our home means, among other things, tadpole season. Rarely does a year go by when someone doesn’t bring some of these little critters to the house so we can watch their amazing development into frogs or toads over the course of a number of weeks. This year is no exception, and Peter has also begun supplying other boys at church who don’t have quite such ready pond access. When he was catching tadpoles, Peter also captured a newt, so we’ll see how that one goes as well.

The book we have relied on for many years to instruct us in the basics of caring for tadpoles, newts, crickets, earthworms, and other fun little creatures is Pets in a Jar: Collecting and Caring for Small Wild Animals. It’s great to keep some of these little animals a few days to a few weeks, then release them back to their habitats. I’m game for almost anything except snakes and rodents. (I used to study rat brains, but the day I had to lead 80 rats to the guillotine when I was pregnant with my firstborn killed any future possibility of my children keeping rodents as pets.)

While I love Pets in a Jar, Kara prefers May I Keep This Clam, Mother? It Followed My Home: The Care and Feeding of Wild Pets. The former is still in print, but you’ll have to find the latter at ABEBooks.

Happy collecting!

Psalm 104: 24, 25 How many are your works, O LORD! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number-- living things both large and small.