Not a Happy Ending

 While out in the yard, I often come across things that are a bit depressing.  More oft than not, these sad situations involve one of my critter friends.  It always tugs at the heartstrings to see one of my little buddies in a dire situation.  Today, I found a "not so happy ending" that befell a tiny critter.   It was a tragedy that did cause a bit of trepidation even in my thoughts!  If this happened to my friend, what might be lurking behind ME?

  While out sweeping off the steps, I noticed a bit of spiderwebbing that looked a tad out of place. The silken wad was quite large and lumpy. Hmmm?  That did not bode well for some critter.  Using a stick, I tossed the bundle out to the board path.  I decided to operate and see just what the spider had caught.   After playing surgeon for a while I managed to unwrap the victim.   Oh, my goodness!  A spider had a frog for supper! Inside the silken bundle, a dehydrated green tree frog looked a lot like what I imagined a mummy would be.  Poor little froggy!  

  As I sat bemoaning the premature death of the frog, another thought hit me.  WOW!  What a giant spider that must have been!  To capture a frog, the spider had to be huge!  Ok, I just got a case of the heebie-jeebies!  I turned to stare at the place where I found the neat package containing the corpse.  There were the usual spiderwebs beneath the wooden steps but, for the life of me, I did not see any giant spiders.  Once again, I looked at the frog. "Little guy, who did this to you?  Where is your assailant?  Help me out here, Frog!"  I have been under the impression that frogs eat spiders and not the other way around. 

  I never did find the spider and that does lead to a bit of anxiety.  The mummified frog was found dangling on the side of the front steps which means that I, at some point, came in close proximity to a giant-frog-eating-spider-creature that might attack without any notice!  Ok...I think I will use the back door for a while...thank you very much.