Goodbye Sneaky and Sticky

I found out today that two living things in my care died: Sneaky and Sticky. My daughter wanted a snake, but at the pet store, a couple of weeks ago, I talked her into getting a frog. Boy, I should’ve asked some questions. Frogs need a lot of care. We fed it bugs about every other night and it was moist in its jar, but it still died. I had read the sheet and got “the basics” and planned on getting an aquarium for it, but apparently, I was supposed to also be “dusting” it with vitamins and calcium. It also requires a daily spray of fresh water which I had been doing, but not in several days. I don’t know. It just makes me feel terrible – like I’ve displeased God or something by having these little creatures die. When my daughter woke up I told her about it. I said, “I guess we didn’t take good care of him.” She said, “no, he just didn’t have that tank.” She had been giving him bugs too. I then told her that we needed to release Sneaky – a Salamander that had wondered into my office this week. I got it Tuesday and we took it home in a plastic cup. This was just over a day later, but the thing died. We went out to release it this morning and there he was – stiff and shriveled up. She picked him up and tossed him into the front yard saying, “well, if he’s fake-dead he needs to stop.”

You know, how I do fret over this and that. Just look at how she handled it. No big deal. She is my sage. There I was upset about Sticky, the frog, and Sneaky, the salamander, dying. There’s a lake behind my house and maybe 1000 frogs and salamanders die back there each day, yet I don’t think about that. True, I should make my best effort to care and provide for things given me, but why fret over it when they perish?

I’ve suffered several tragedies in my life in recent years and even recently. It’s time to toss them out into the front yard and say, “well, if they’re fake-dead they need to stop.” And walk away. My daughter simply wasn’t going to deal with a salamander who was either truly dead or faking it. The next time something doesn’t work out for me I’m simply going to say, “well, if it’s fake-dead, it needs to stop” and let it go. The Bible tells us to be like children. I think if more of us were like that the world would be a much happier place….