Tadpoles

When I was a kid, you couldn't get away from tadpoles. Now, maybe this is because my grandpa had a cattle ranch with a creek running through it and there were lots of places where the water pooled in the spring. My brothers never had to search to get a fishbowl full of tadpoles. We'd even find them in the corner of our lot where things didn't drain right. Tadpoles were everywhere.

Now, it seems they are hard to find. Not sure what this means for frogs...though I know the one croaking outside my window is endangered. (HA!) The small boy's 1st grade class needs tadpoles, and the ones you buy from the store haven't hatched for the last two years, so they're not going that route.

At our old house, our neighbor had them in his pond. The boys would keep them in a bucket in the backyard - we even had a raccoon spill the bucket last year! But...we moved. Do you think I could head over to any old pond and scoop some up? Could I call the neighbor and ask if he's cleaned his pond out yet? And how weird is it that I'm hunting tadpoles? VERY weird since they totally gross me out!