rrrrrRibbit?

When I was in sixth grade, my science (and also home room) teacher came up with the brilliant idea of starting a terrarium as sort of an on-going, year-long science project for the entire class.

She got a hold of a gigantic tank and from what I can recall, she filled it with the proper gravel and plants, heat lamps and rocks, and miniature pools of water. Every kid in the class was invited to bring something in to contribute to the terrarium. Many kids brought in those little lizards that are now sold at Renaissance Faires as baby dragons - much like hermit crabs are always sold on a boardwalk. I ventured out with a good friend to a nearby pet store and she picked a lizard out while I became fascinated by a tiny baby spiky lizard. The pet store wouldn't sell it to me presumably because it was a tiny baby and I was a dumb kid- which is just as well. Today, I totally agree with their decision but I was embarrassed and hurt that they wouldn't trust me back then. Then again, I was intending to dump it into a mash up of 30 other little creatures in what, unbeknownst to me, would become a scientific version of Gladiator. Instead of the spiky baby, I found a small white frog that I fell in love with. I named him Cosmo and took him home. He spent the night in a glass vase with a wet paper towel and then I took him to school the next day. We were told that we would get to take home and keep the animals at the end of the year - I envisioned a super cool tank in my room for Cosmo and I couldn't wait for him to be all mine.

Within the first week, half the animals had disappeared without a trace. We'd all eagerly smash our faces against the glass each morning during homeroom to see where all the little guys were - and were disappointed each day to count a few less. One girl was forced by the principal to take home her three tiny tree frogs. She'd brought them in and proudly proclaimed their names to be "Bud", "Weis" and "Er". Apparently they were terrorists or something equally appalling and therefore could no longer be trusted to reside on school property in peace. A few weeks into the terrarium-watch, there were only a couple of lizards left. It was a disappointing time for us.

Then things started getting interesting again when it became obvious that our terrarium now officially included the whole of our class room. We started re-discovering some of our little buddies which renewed a significant amount of interest in our project. People got to class even quicker than they did before just so that they could have an extra two minutes to look around as hard as they could to re-capture an animal and be heralded as that day's hero.

We found one lizard on the blackboard, one on the teacher's desk, and one behind some books on a shelf. We even found one hanging out on a window behind a poster on a sunny day - I personally spotted his silhouette. There were also a few disappointments, the most gruesome being a blackened and charred carcass of a little lizard that had optimistically taken up residence inside the heater. Unfortunately, even when we caught them, alive and well, and safely return them to the official terrarium - they would re-disappear in a few days.

Cosmo was one of the first to disappear and never be seen again.

Although this project was an obvious disaster to most adults, it was pretty cool as a kid. Later on I tried to create my own terrarium populated by the slower salamanders that I found in my back yard underneath bricks and such. The experience was no different and represents a perfect example of what kind of thing could be marked with a large "FAIL" stamp. After about a week only one salamander was left - the biggest one. A little while after that I released him. I hope his food sources rest in peace.

Anyway. Moral of the story = My attempts at REAL terrariums were failures. Unless you know what you're doing, it won't work. However, I am crafty. And if I can't have a real terrarium I might as well have a fake one that's just as cool.