I OBSERVE A small body, barely visible until you get up close. Migrated from a puddle to a tank. Time passes and a pair of legs grows. With more time, a second pair. A tail disappears. Some of these creatures survive, but many more die. It is science, it is nature, and it is magic!

Can we keep them? No. The survivors are lovingly and reverently returned to the ditch where, months earlier, the rain left a temporary pond. We will find more next year.