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I love the Mendocino coast for a myriad of reasons. First, it's almost never hot. As a Floridian, I'm most grateful for that. Then there are the residents. I was in the car with a friend in Miami last week, and at every traffic light the woman behind us blasted her horn the instant the light turned to green. I think it's the anonymity. In a city, people can get away with being rude and crude, but here the person you give the finger to may know you or someone who does. We keep our frustration with slow drivers in check.

Pacific Chorus Frog
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How'd I get off on that subject? This morning I heard someone calling--not my name--just calling, yohoo. I'm in my pajamas, as usual, so I'm hesitant to go outside to see what he/she wants. But I do because here on the coast we try to be neighborly and help people if they need help.

The woman, wearing calf-high rubber boots, jeans, and a baseball cap, was carrying two plastic bags. Inside were plastic containers full of tadpoles. We had very little rain this year, and the puddles where she found them were drying up so she was on a rescue mission. I live on a creek, have a pond, and am--you know--nuts about animals.

There are now tadpoles in a smooth stretch of the creek, the pond and an old predator free aquarium. I've promised my only Chorus Frog company by mid-summer.

How to Raise Tadpoles http://allaboutfrogs.org/info/tadpoles/

Speaking of rescues. This is Naki'o

As an abandoned puppy Naki'o developed severe frostbite in his paws and had to have them removed when he was rescued. Now, thanks to this groundbreaking use of prosthetics, he is able to run around again. Here he's still getting used to them, but in time he should be able to do everything a normally-pawed dog can do.