"It's a frog, Momma!" Jessica whispered excitedly. She was trying so hard not to scare the frog away that her mother couldn't help but smile. Jessica's little body twitched with excitement as she reached out toward the frog.

         "Jessica, don't touch it. You don't know where that frog has been." Her mother tried to sound firm but knew that the joy she found in watching her child discover something new and exciting, had stripped her tone of it's strength. Sighing softly, Amber sat back from her weeding to watch her child. "You were going to water the roses remember."

         "I already did,Momma" the little girl, said pointing to her empty watering can. "I am all out of water."

         "Jess, Momma has to finish weeding. You can watch the frog or play with the kittens but don't touch the frog." Amber waited for Jessica to respond to her demand. Eventually the little girls head began to bob up and down in agreement, allowing her mother to go back to her weeding.

         Amber weeded for a few quite minutes, while trying to keep an eye on Jessica, who had wandered over to play with the kittens. Sitting back on her heels she wiped the sweat out of her eyes as she her Jessica say to the kitten. "Momma is no fun. I bet she would let you play with the frog."

         Leaning forward again, Amber went back to her weeding, the implications of what her daughter had said not fulling sinking in until she had turned to pull weeds from a different part of the flower bed. Jessica was sitting beside the frog holding the kitten. Amber's mind rushed as it started putting together the event that was about to happen and the out come of said event.

         As though in slow motion, Jessica sat the kitten down next to the frog. Amber tried to tell her no but before the words could pass her lips, the kitten pounced the frog. Amber leaned over reaching as far as she could for the kitten but it fell just short of her finger tips. Pushing herself up, she practically jumped the three feet to her young daughter and the kitten, risking bites and scratches to pull the kitten away from it's prey.

         Jessica looked at the kitten then at the frog and at the kitten again. "Is it dead, Momma?" the little girl asked in a whisper.

         "Yeah, little bit, it is. You can't put a predator like a puppy or a kitten by a frog. They will kill it. It won't be on purpose. Like you didn't mean to break my lamp yesterday. But, their instinct to hunt is the same as your instinct to play. The kitten could have no more not attacked the frog than you could have not played your ghost game under your sheet that caused you to break my lamp."

         Jessica chewed on her bottom lip a moment her eyes watery with unshed tears. "Can we give the frog a funeral?"

         "Sure go inside and get the shoe box in your closet. We can keep it in there until your father gets home."