Frogs

everybody thinks i'm crazy.  which, i can't deny, is true.

but i work with frogs (xenopus laevis).  they're cute.  and i know them by name. their names are 22, 23, 24, 26, and 27. they have personalities.  24 is probably my favorite. she's a splasher.  22, 23, and 24 are all much bigger than 26 & 27 for some reason.  they all have different patterns of dark/light spots, but they're all very pretty.  their common name is african clawed frogs, and they really do have claws on their back feet. sort of.

every S, M, T, W i take care of these frogs.  tuesdays are feeding days--usually its so cute, the frogs will use their front limbs to take the food right out of my hand.  they sweep their arms forward and grab the food, then shove it in their mouths.   cute right?  right. on thursdays we do surgeries, rotating frogs every week.  we extract the oocytes.  and those are used for experiments designed to find a cure for the flu and alzheimers. so its pretty great. each frog undergoes only 6 surgeries before they are humanely euthanized.  two weeks ago we lost our first since i've been there-- RIP 21. <3