There's A Dying Frog On My Stoep!
Later on Tokkie saw something on the stoep – a frog, she assumed. She urged it on with her foot but it would not leap. The police torch was switched on. In the beam of the torch lay the tiniest of tiny bushbabies. My wife thought it was dead. When she picked it up, she heard faint “click-click” sounds. The little hand gripped her finger and the little tail lay stretched in a fancy curl.
This was an emergency
Tokkie raced to the gate to ask advice from the Zellers, while daughter-in-law, Mariza, sat holding the weak little patient. The gate guard on duty did not see his way open to call the Zellers. Not a matter of life and death this one! The only advice Tokkie received, was to it to the office the next morning. On her way home, she started scheming about a warm bed of cotton wool. She coerced son, Johan, into breaking off the needle of one of his insulin syringes to feed the little baby glucose water – to no avail.
Several emergency measures were considered. It was decided democratically to place the derelict on the table near the wall of the stoep – in the hope that his mother would notice him. That was a wise decision. A little while later, we saw an adult bushbaby in the branches near the table. In a flash the baby was gone. Using our torches we searched every nook, cranny, stoep, ground, table and chair. All we found were two small frogs (real ones!).
Our little patient must have fallen from the rafters where, at that stage, quite a few bushbabies slept during the day. In our hearts we hoped or believed that our story had a happy ending and that his mother had really fetched him. Later on, after Tokkie and I have returned to Melkbos, we were informed how the little drama ended. Johan and Mariza stayed longer. Mariza reported: “At 05:30 of the day before our holiday ended, we were awoken by a din. Johan went inspecting and discovered that the baby had again fallen from the nest. He went back to bed, but I stood waiting, feeling quite sure that its mother would not have him lying there. By Jove, a little while later the mother leapt from the tree, grasped him behind his head and made off.” Now we knew.