麻豆传媒AV

Today, I'm devoting this entire First Person story to frogs. Exciting stuff.

Those of you familiar with the Battlefords know stuffed animals have a prominent role in the life of our community.

They're regularly donated as part of the annual Empty Stocking Fund campaign to help the less fortunate. They're tossed onto the ice surface during the Teddy Bear Toss Night at a Battlefords North Stars game, all going to those in need.

Many of you know Reine Lessard, a former Citizen of the Year in the Battlefords, who is known as the Teddy Bear Lady for her efforts to bring stuffed animals to patients at Battlefords Union Hospital.

Teddy bears and plush animals bring joy to many in our community, and, as it turned out, to our own newsroom as well.

Readers of the News-Optimist and Regional Optimist may have seen pictures of the stuffed animal mascot we have here. Her name is Claudette, a giant plush green frog.

No, Claudette, the frog is not named after you.

She's actually named in honor of Claude, production manager at the paper, who is well known as a big animal lover and whose first language is French.

Editor Becky Doig spotted the big green frog while shopping at Indigo in Calgary last fall. She admits to a weakness for frogs, having collected them since she was a teenager. She says it all started when a high school friend gave her a set of small plastic frogs seated around a lily pad playing cards. One of the frogs had an ace partially hidden under one foot.

The polyester-fiber frogs, which come in green and red, are from a company called Animal Adventure, Inc. in Hopkins, Minn. However, the frogs themselves are actually made in China.

On the Indigo website, the two frogs are referred to as "Heather's Pick." I'm not sure whether that means Heather picked them because they ranked high in customer satisfaction, or whether she simply wants them cleared out of her stores. Anyway, that's what they are.

On a whim, Becky snapped up the lovable-looking frog and brought Claudette to our newsroom, where it has made its home on the newsroom couch.

Only a few days after its arrival, I noticed something strange about the frog. I was convinced this thing was alive.

It started when I noticed Claudette reading the newspaper one day. Later, I caught her sitting in front of the computer staring at pictures of Kermit the Frog. Another time, she was watching the cartoon One Froggy Evening.

One day, Claudette decided she wanted to be a reporter and on her own initiative, filled in at the sports desk while we waited for the newly-hired sports reporter to show up.

Claudette has a keen fashion sense. She dressed up for Halloween and wore some green Riders clothes during Grey Cup week.

She also took an interest in the cookies we brought back from our downtown shopping spree story.

Earlier this week I saw her holding a box of Kleenex; I guess she was getting over the H1N1 flu. She seems to have recovered, because the other day I saw her proofreading the news pages.

The bottom line is this stuffed frog took on a life of her own and became a real part of our newsroom. She's brightened up our days here, especially mine.

Whenever my spirits were dampened by having to write about yet another crime story, or about yet another depressing controversy Battlefords people are mad about, all I needed to do was look at our big-eyed frog mascot lounging on the couch, and it would brighten up my day.

The notion dawned on me "one froggy evening" at home, maybe I should get a frog of my own.

On those lonely and cold days in the Battlefords in December, just that thought alone was enough to bring a smile to my face.

About a couple of weeks before Christmas I was shopping in Saskatoon and stopped by the Indigo store on a Saturday afternoon.

It just so happened they had two huge bins full of these giant green and red frogs for sale at 50 per cent off in their toy section, all of them looking like clones of Claudette.

"I should buy one of these things," I thought. But then I had second thoughts about the whole, silly idea. Hardened political reporters aren't supposed to buy frogs.

There was a huge lineup of people waiting in the checkout that day. Besides, there were plenty of frogs in stock. I didn't expect any sudden customer run on frogs. I figured I could come back when things were less hectic if I still wanted one.

When I got back to the Battlefords, I realized I had missed my opportunity. I wanted a frog, but now it was too late. I was overwhelmed with work-related assignments that included a drive to Lloydminster to cover Gerry Ritz's fundraiser, and I couldn't get back to Saskatoon.

Later that week I looked up the Indigo website and found all the frogs at that store were gone.

Christmas came and went. From time to time I checked the Indigo site to see if the Saskatoon store had restocked any more frogs. They hadn't.

I checked the website often over several days, and noticed the number of green and red frogs that the other Indigo stores had in their inventories kept going lower and lower.

One day I looked at the Indigo site and panicked. It seemed their stores everywhere were running out of frogs. I worried that I might be completely out of luck if I waited any longer.

I completely caved. I got out my credit card and decided to order my frog online. But then I got hung up as to what colour of frog I wanted. Did I want a green one, or did I want a red one?

I finally said to heck with it. I ordered two frogs.

Since then, I've been eagerly tracking their Canada Post delivery progress. Finally, on Friday, my frogs arrived.

I decided the green one will be called Freddy and the red one will be called Reddy. Hey, it rhymes.

I'm sure these two goofballs will be as full of life as Claudette has proved to be in the newsroom. They should quickly develop amusing and quirky personalities of their own. They may be stuffed animals, but tell that to them.

All in all, I feel really stupid. Adopting these frog creatures surely ranks among the dumber episodes of my life.

But if there is one thing about stuffed animals, it's that they bring out the kids in all of us.