How do I get myself into these things?

OK, so for like the last 2 years I've been saying, "No more pets!". And I've been sticking to my guns too. The last pet we acquired was a blue betta named Zach. The only reason we got him was because Logan won a 1 gallon aquarium. I figured a betta wouldn't be too much trouble. He's not, just cleaning the tank is a pain. But it's not too bad.

That's just the tip of the iceberg though. Let me give you a quick run down of all the pets we've had in the last few years. First off, we have a giant cat named Jack and a giant basset named, Frank. Many of you are familiar with them. They are both almost 13 years old and giant pains in the ass!

We've also had a total of 4 gerbils (3 of which were killed by the above named giant cat, Jack because they would escape from their cage!), 1 hermit crab (that lived for almost a year!), snails for a brief period, and if that weren't enough... keep reading!

It all started innocently enough. It was right before Logan's birthday and he was telling me about a boy down the street that had caught a tadpole at the creek and had it in a tank. It had turned into a small frog. How cool, right? So I was at Target shopping and I saw a tadpole habitat (above). I thought, oh, that would be cool to watch (Erica's rubbing off on me again). So I bought it. It had a sticker that said you could send off for a free tadpole. OK, I thought, we can do that. (There was no certificate in the box for the tadpole, by the way). Liars.

First though we went down to the creek to see if we could find a tadpole. No luck. So we look online. The only place to get a tadpole has bullfrog tadpoles. OK, I don't really know anything about frogs or toads. So we pay the almost $15 with shipping for 1 tadpole. A few days later it arrives in the mail... HOLY CRAP!! What have I gotten myself into???

Meet Gordon Alfonzo Smith (Yes, Logan came up with that before he was here and his initials are GAS! ). This thing is enormous!!! I can't believe it!! I never thought I would see a "tadpole" that's this big! How freakin' big is the frog going to be. As you can see, I didn't research this well. I did however think that we may be able to let him go "free" in the creek once he gets bigger! We'll see how that idea goes over!

Once I saw him, I knew immediately that the "habitat" I bought wasn't big enough, so we headed strait to Petco to buy something bigger. Not sure how long he'll last in there though. I put the sunglasses next to him for scale!
Both the kids wanted their pictures taken with him! We just added some rocks to Gordon's tank today. Before this it was just him in an empty tank of water. Once he grows his front and back legs, he'll need to start breathing air, so we'll lower the water level so that the rocks stick out. Just look at that monster up on that top rock!! Crazy!

Like I said, how do I get myself into these things? I'm a sucker, that's how! Do you know how many animals I've said no to? A LOT!! Just goes to show, if you keep asking enough every once in a while you'll slip one past! Ha!

Anyone want a bullfrog in a few months?