A Curious Thing

The house is quiet, and I'm the only one up. I relish these times - the early mornings and the evenings after the kids in bed. I prefer reading, but tonight I've had an important job to do - install our new printer. To some this may not seem daunting, but I really don't enjoy the process of plugging cords into strange places, clicking "install" and "next" and "trial print." But, much to my amazement, I was not the only one up in my house. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something jump, I looked toward the floor and saw a small frog, about 3 inches, hop under my couch. I was dumb-struck. How did it get in here? How LONG has it been in here? Where is it NOW? I'm not afraid of frogs, but I was too shocked at having a visitor to know how to react in a timely manner. So I layed down on the floor to look under the couch, couldn't find him, and then wondered what to do next. In theory, he's been in the house for at least 6 hours - when I last closed the back patio door. So apparently, he's survived this long and could very well continue living here just fine. But, I'M not fine with that. It creeps me out to think that I could be sitting on the couch, while the frog just hops below me on the carpet, or, god-forbid, on the couch beside me. I was thankful, therefore, when I saw it hop again on the other side of the family room. I quickly grabbed a bowl, since I had enough time to think through my game plan, and trapped the little guy. Of course, I hadn't thought through what to do next. Like I said, I like frogs. But this one didn't look like an ordinary little tree frog. The coloring was different. And I couldn't help but think that if I touch it, I might be poisoned somehow. Apparently I'm not fearless. So, I threw him into the fish tank. Frogs like the water, right? Except that as soon as I threw him in there, I had second thoughts. I mean, he's survived 6+ hours in a dry, waterless environment. Maybe this frog doesn't like water. I didn't mean to kill the little sucker. He's sprawled out on the surface of the water and he's not moving. His "jaw" area is moving up and down. So I think he's still breathing. I'm seriously concerned. The lid of the tank is on securely, so I feel safe to go to bed and not wake up to something hopping in my bed. But I will feel awful if I wake up to a dead frog in the fish tank. I think I'll google "how to care for a frog."