Trigger Warning: This story contains some upsetting details regarding an injured animal.
While I was straining to stitch together an interesting idea for my next article, my mom stomped through the door with a frog in her hand. She put him right up to my face and said, “See, he has a broken leg.”. After telling her to please get the frog out of my face, fearing that it would jump and land into my soup, we headed up the stairs into the bathroom to further assess the situation. Upon closer inspection, we realized just how poor of a condition this frog’s leg was in. One of his legs was withered and bent back, pink dotted his torn flesh. We decided to try to kill the bacteria in his wound if there was any.
When she dripped the hydrogen peroxide onto his leg in the sink, I did not expect him to keep his calm demeanor. He didn’t flail like a fly in the water, he kept his leg still under the medicinal froth. He looked like a marbled pebble at the bottom of a foaming pond. My mom found a forgotten shoe box and placed the amphibian inside. In the back seat, she held the box on her lap, as I drove to the Woodford Cedar Run Wildlife refuge. I have never been to this place, but in the past, my mom has delivered a baby wild turkey and a pregnant bat to their hospital for treatment. It was about a fifteen-minute drive. Our car went through swirling roads and gravel driveways until we reached a half-moon shaped parking lot. We park and my mom walks out.
I plodded over thick tree roots and paused by a tree stump to push my heels into my sneakers, my mom was way in front of me, looking for a sign for the animal hospital. We followed the bold red H signs through a small dirt pathway, which opened up to a lake of red creek water and monster shaped clusters of tree branches. We started to cross the bridge, and it wasn’t a short, sinking bridge with tired wooden planks, and this surprised me. No, this was a bridge that looked new, one with smooth, even-colored planks of wood, that stretched its broad arms across the lake. A young child with a shark on his shirt confidently approached us and asked my mom what was in the box. She told him and he peeked his head into the box to see the creature. As we walked away I heard his mother asking him how he thought the little frog hurt his leg, I didn’t hear his response. I thought to myself, asking questions is such a motherly thing to do, and then I wondered why I thought that but was interrupted by my mom asking me if I think we should turn left or right. We went right.
We soon entered a clearing and I was stunned by the number of animal habitats in front of me. There were around thirty that housed a variety of animals, such as bald eagles, ravens, squirrels, turtles, skunks, and hawks. My favorites were the friendly Blue Jay named Blueberry and the big, sleeping raccoon who had a yellow slide in his enclosure. My mom and I passed through the enclosures and we talked about how we had no clue all of these animals were back here. We soon found the hospital and went inside. The woman at the desk came into the room after she heard the bell and asked how she can help us. My mom explained we had a frog in the box, and the woman squealed with surprise and mild excitement. I guess they don’t get many frogs. She took the frog into the back and returned with the empty shoe box which she handed over as she told us they will take a look at him and fix him up. We headed back to the enclosures.
Walking around, I was surprised to see anybody there, I expected this place to be empty because it was so far back into the woods, I was wrong. I saw mothers wearing running sneakers and outdoor recreation pants for the purpose of running after their kids and carrying sippy cups, granola, and pacifiers. One mother wore a strap around her body and held her baby close to her chest as she followed her other son around and around the enclosures. My mom and I walked around reading the names and histories of the animals, many of which have been there for five to ten years. The animals seemed content and well-adjusted to human attention. This coupled with golden rays of the sun being carried on waves of a cooling breeze, made for a pleasant atmosphere. On our way out of the enclosure space, we saw a man with an owl on his gloved hand. He spoke lovingly about this bird as if it was his son. He even showed us the bird’s baby pictures, a fluffy mound of feathers with wide yellow disks for eyes. My mom and I walked back to the car parked in the half-moon lot. As I drove us back home, I thought of how I wanted to return to this place in the future, to walk the trails, visit the animals, and write in my journal on the bridge. I thought of how I never knew this lovely place was so close to my house. So, go out and explore the places near you, you’ll never know what you will find!