Itsnaut Rele
September 8, 2006

I still remember the first night I saw her. Eric had come to my apartment at BYU for dinner one Sunday night, and afterwards we visited another apartment in my complex. I was immediately drawn to a 10-gallon aquarium which contained the most outrageous frog I had ever seen. The guy living there wanted to get rid of it. Eric was ecstatic and wanted her right away. She was named for some of the first words Eric spoke when he saw her: "It's not real!" She has lateral lines on much of her body - bearing the appearance of stitches - earning her the nickname: FrankenFrog.

She was brought into the family in the Fall of 1995. Over the next eleven years she switched hands many times: sometimes living with Eric, sometimes with Greg and his family, and sometimes with me.

I loved the way she ate her food using her hands as forks, pushing food into her mouth. I loved that she could fit just about anything in her mouth. I loved her "fart bubbles": when she would take a breath of air and then propel herself under water backwards, breathing out bubbles as she went. I loved how she survived an overnight trip in a box when Greg shipped her out to my place in St. Louis a few years ago, and how happy I was to see her again. I loved how, because I was so happy to see her, that one of those first nights in St. Louis I gently stroked her for a little while, and the next day found I had induced her to lay hundreds of eggs waiting to be fertilized.

The last couple of weeks have been particularly stressful on her, and she has refused all food. She seemed to have gone blind as well, not being able to swim anywhere without bumping into everything. I tried medication and quarantines, but nothing helped. I think she was ready to go.

Rest in peace Itsnaut