The moment Roisin Quinn bought her new home, she began planning the renovations that would turn it into her dream space. The house was a fixer-upper, but as a professional interior designer, Quinn was up for the challenge and eager to start the most important tasks.
But one day, while surveying her new duckweed-covered pond, her plans were suddenly derailed.
“We were just staring at the pond, wondering how on Earth we were going to clean it out, and then I spotted a little bit of movement, and two eyes appeared,” Quinn told The Dodo.
Quinn couldn’t believe it: She was making eye contact with a little frog in the pond. The homeowner was stunned, as she never expected to see anyone emerge from the duckweed-laden water.
“The fact there’s any life in
this pond honestly amazes me,” Quinn wrote on Instagram.
But instead of being startled by the two eyes staring back at her, Quinn was almost moved to tears.
“I nearly started crying, it was so cute!” Quinn said. “He looked adorable, like he was wearing a little green hat.”
You can see that moment here:
The little frog, later named Herbie, returned to his underwater hideout after a few minutes of staring at Quinn. His introduction might have been brief, but Quinn couldn’t stop thinking about him and the pond when she returned inside.
“[The pond] was right at the bottom of our renovation to-do list, but thanks to Herbie, it’s suddenly jumped to the top,” Quinn wrote. “Now we’ve got to turn it into a [cozy] little haven just for him.”
Herbie’s habitat became a top priority for Quinn, and she began brainstorming ways to make the area as comfortable as possible for him. But she soon realized that the pond wasn’t just Herbie’s when a second frog, whom Quinn called Sherbie, appeared.
“I was over the moon when I spotted Sherbie! Herbie had a friend,” Quinn said. “[I]t just made us so happy to know there were more and Herbie wasn’t all on his lonesome.”
You can watch that moment here:
From the moment she saw Sherbie, Quinn could tell the two frogs were bonded. Now with two little beings to care for, she became even more determined to make their home absolutely perfect for them.
“We have cleared some of the duckweed because they like it, but not too much, so we need to find the right balance,” Quinn said. “We’ve left big wooden branches for them to climb out when they want. We’ve left a lot of ivy that’s trailing the ground for them to hide under and be safe. [And] we will make little frog houses to go around the pond!”
Herbie and Sherbie’s pond is nearly perfect now, and renovations have begun around the rest of the house so that the humans can live just as comfortably as they do.
And while Quinn looks forward to seeing the house transform, she has something even more exciting to look forward to in the near future. She recently found another frog by the garage, and she suspects he could be one of Herbie and Sherbie’s kids.
So, she put him beside the pond and is waiting, fingers crossed, that the little frog family in her garden will grow.
“Hopefully, he joins in with the rest of them!” Quinn said.
