So, a little story ... Last summer, as our house was destroyed by a hamster that got loose and chewed through a kitchen plumbing line while we were gone for a long weekend, we had a leaky above-ground pool in our backyard.

We got it used and cheap from a friend, it served our kids well for a few summers, but it was beyond patching. Yet it had filled with some rainwater before we could get it down. So we planned to deal with it ... and then everything happened, and that became a low priority.

So, during the summer, as we lived elsewhere and tried to pick up our lives, etc., we noticed tadpoles in the greenish water of the pool. HUNDREDS of tadpoles.

This made pumping out the water seem inhumane. We'd be killing LOTS of would-be frogs. So, we left it for weeks as the tadpoles grew into frogs and finally left the pool on their new legs. By fall, the pool was drained and hauled away.

But, we wondered, what happened to the frogs? Would they survive the winter, etc.?

Well, I can now report that this spring, our backyard seems to be home to five or six of these Pacific tree frogs (the state's official amphibian). Here's photographic proof, as captured by my 12-y.o.'s phone ...

These frogs are sometimes called Pacific chorus frogs, a well-deserved name because they are LOUD. We've heard them for weeks through our closed bedroom windows.

Last night, hoping to see meteors (alas, too cloudy), we camped in our tent in the yard. The frogs sang SOOOOO LOUDLY. Anyway, we helped expand the frog population, it turns out. And my kid's been shooting MANY hoops using the basketball hoop where the pool once stood. <fin>