Do the salamander walk
There are walks for all kinds of causes, but our kids and their friends took up a new cause on this particular walk – salamander rescue. It all began as an early evening stroll along a country road, but we hadn’t gone far when things began to turn ugly. “Ooooh,” came the cry from up ahead. “A salamander,” one of the kids shouted. “And its internal organs are distributed haphazardly on the pavement,” (loosely translated) screamed Grace at the top of her lungs. Then they found another dead one – scream. And another – scream. We put an end to the screaming part, but now it was turning into race to see who could spot the next body first.
As they moved through the carnage, it dawned on the kids that the salamanders were not having much luck at crossing the road. Solution? Ferry them across by hand. First task: find a live salamander. Now the hunt moved to the ditches beside the road. Bits of school science classes began to come back and the favourite habitat of salamanders became a point of great debate. Marshy land, streams, dry grass – it ran the gamut.
Suddenly a scream was heard and Grace was running towards the others holding a salamander – more debate about whether it was moving or not, and then a group cheer as a leg moved. Time to carry the creature across the road. “Which side did you find him on?” an obviously level-headed kid asks Grace. “Umm, that side.. no, wait, over there I think.” We’ll never know if they actually got it where it was going or simply returned it to the same side of the road, but no matter, the good deed was done and it was time to head home.
