The smallest boy in our house is very fond of frogs. He wants a frog cake for his birthday. Actually he is intrigued by all sort of animals including chillalas (koalas), wombats and particularly thorny devils, of course. Last time we were walking in the bush he warned us to be careful not to tread on any baby chillalas that had fallen out of the trees onto the ground. He assures us that death by 'treading' is quite at the heart of the plight of the baby chillala, so please take care.
My interesting little man has even invented some creatures and can weave a fascinating tale of their adventures. You may not know this, but apparently, sometimes, when sitting down to dinner, it is absolutely impossible to eat as all your focus is required in keeping an eye out for 'pompigs' and 'bonkins'.
In case you are not as familiar with these creatures as my lad, I shall describe them to you on his behalf. He tells me that pompigs fly, but they are certainly NOT like fairies, they live in trees and hide in the leaves. Bonkins, are not rampant rooting beasts as their name may suggest. (The boy has arrived at this name via other means than my own love for the crass double entendre.) As I understand it, the bonkin is very similar to the pompig, however flightless, larger and they inhabit quite different trees. An interesting fact about both critters is that they go to the shops and buy milk, which they keep in their fridges in the trees.
Unfortunately, both the pompigs and the bonkins are plagued by their only known predator ... dun, dun dun ... the coronados. Coronados (koh-roh-nar-doss) are relentless consumers of both pompigs and bonkins. Nasty coronados! The coronados is a white scavenging bird. You may be more familiar with both their common name, the 'seagull' and their diet of stolen chips dropped near park benches and the like.
The little lad's most recent animal adventure occurred in our very own back yard. I was pruning and weeding - as I am want to do on random occasions, when I heard the guy call out " Look Mum, I have found an animal." Surprised, I turned to see him proudly clutching a dead rat around the middle. I reacted with my usual calmness and complete control in any anxious moment (ahem...), squealed and cried "Drop it, it's dead!" grabbed the boy by the hand and dragged him inside to be thoroughly disinfected while the boy repeated " Mum it wasn't dead, it was just sleeping."
Needless to say, the savings fund has commenced for his therapy and mine after this exciting incident. But happily it has not impacted on my lovely guy's interest in animals in general.
Grimace the frog (above) was made at Brown Owls the other night for the small boy's 4th birthday invitation. It is a little bit of a weird image for a 4 year old birthday invite, but he is quite fond of a little weirdness.
