Stevie Wonder, a blind frog, has been this Edgewood woman’s best friend since third grade
Stevie Wonder the frog doesn’t croak but he does sing. That’s according to Renae Larson, a 22-year-old woman who has cared for the one-time science project since she was 9 years old.
Can a 2-inch-long amphibian become a girl’s best friend? Larson’s experience would suggest yes.
“He’s been with me my whole life,” she said recently at her family’s Edgewood home. “Through all the places I’ve lived. All the different schools I’ve been to. Every emotional moment in my life ... he’s always just been in my room. I wake up, he’s there. I fall asleep, he’s there. It’s a constant for my whole life, more than any other pet I’ve had.”
Stevie is an African dwarf frog. He began his life as part of a third and fourth grade science curriculum project at Northwood Elementary School in Puyallup that included observing millipedes. Several of the tiny frogs were studied by Larson and her classmates, led by teacher Heather MacMaster.
“We learned about frogs themselves,” MacMaster told The News Tribune in a phone interview. “But the main thing was to make observations; to have a practice of the scientific method where you get a plan and have a question you wanted answered.”
The now-retired teacher didn’t want to say what would have become of Stevie and his ilk if he hadn’t been adopted.
“I had no intention that they would go home with the kids except somebody asked, and I said they could go home with them if I had written permission from from the parents,” MacMaster said. “Nobody took home the millipedes.”
Larson volunteered to take two frogs home.
“The teacher was like, ‘They’ll live a couple of months,’” mom Alice Larson said. One frog did die in about a month. Stevie was different.
“He’s lived another 13 years,” Renae Larson added.
The family — which includes dad Mark and older sister Sarah — determined the surviving frog was severely visually impaired and dubbed him Stevie Wonder.
“He’s blind and he sings,” Larson patiently explained to a reporter. “So, Stevie Wonder.”
At one point during the interview, Larson carefully placed a flake of fish food on the tip of a pencil and then lowered it down a few millimeters from Stevie’s nose. Whether by smell, feel or the last vestiges of sight, Stevie lunged for the food and quickly swallowed it without so much as a thank you.
Affectionate and frog aren’t two words usually found in the same sentence, but Larson says she has a bond with her web-footed friend.
The aquatic life
Stevie might be an air breather but he spends nearly all day underwater, only occasionally rising to the top for a gulp of Edgewood oxygen.
“He’s so old that when he does come up for air, it’s kind of hard for him now,” Larson said. “He’s basically in a home for frogs.”
Stevie lives in a small bowl. The family learned some time after his adoption that African dwarf frogs need at least a couple of gallons to swim in but, after all these years, Stevie seems satisfied with his petite world.
It’s at night when he comes to the surface to sing, Larson said. He was silent during the interview. Larson gave a frog impression by making a humming sound.
Could he be looking for a long-lost mate? A frog boy band to join? Only Stevie knows, and he’s not talking.
Can frogs be pets?
The Dr. Dolittle-like Larson family has a cat named Indy and a dog, Brandy, plus a bearded dragon and a goat. Stevie is older than all of them.
Larson readily admits the pet-human relationship she has with her frog is fundamentally different from the other animals in the Larson household. Stevie can’t be petted, doesn’t fetch and doesn’t wear Halloween costumes. His brown-speckled face always remains inscrutable.
“I do feel a lot for him,” Larson said. “It’s weird, being an animal that I can’t touch or really communicate with in the same way that I can communicate with Brandy.”
He might not beg for table scraps or fetch a stick but Stevie has a personality, Larson said.
“As soon as you give him a piece of food he gets the zoomies, and he just like zips around,” she said. “Even as old as he is ... he can really go and he’s kind of playful.”
Despite his poor eyesight, he follows the up-close faces of people and pets who watch him, Larson said.
“And he’ll kind of follow them around the tank,” she said. “He’s very curious.”
Dorm mate
When Larson left home to live in the dorms at Pacific Lutheran University, Stevie went with her. When she graduated in 2021, Stevie moved back home with her.
She confesses to driving with one hand on the wheel and one hand holding Stevie’s bowl. She made it home without a steely-eyed cop citing her for distracted driving.
Larson, a political science major, spent a short time working on political campaigns before calling it quits. She now works in a funeral home.
“It turns out dead people are easier to work with than politicians,” she said.
Lessons from Stevie
What could you learn from a frog? A lot, it turns out.
“It has taught me to be responsible, to be loyal and just constantly be supporting and loving something if they need it,” Larson said.
Alice Larson said frogs are great pets for people with allergies and those on a budget: There are no vet bills and food costs cents a day.
Is it possible that the original Stevie died and was secretly replaced by parents not wanting to traumatize their daughter?
“I’ve asked about that,” Larson said. “Like, did Stevie go live on a farm somewhere?”
Stevie is an original, Larson’s mother said.
“She would notice,” Alice Larson said. “His face has features she would know.”
Alice Larson said Stevie has been good for her daughter.
“I think it has turned you into a more loving person,” Alice told Renae. “And a more responsible person.”
Eulogy pending
Alice Larson has occasionally kept in contact with teacher MacMaster over the years. She recently got in touch with her again at a reporter’s request.
“Never in my wildest imagination did I think it would be alive now,” McMaster said. “When I got that e-mail, I was just astounded. And the first thing I did was to look up the lifespan of a frog.”
Like watching a loved one on life support, Renae Larson has been bracing for the worst for over a decade. Whenever a pet or house sitter takes care of Stevie, she tells them not to worry if they find the little guy floating belly-up.
“But I’ve had to say that for over a decade now,” she said. “So, I’m kind of walking on eggshells.”
Stevie circled the drain once — literally — when a house sitter accidentally dumped his bowl into a sink. Thankfully, Stevie was able to brake before slipping into the sewer of no return.
“I’m definitely gonna be heartbroken when he eventually goes, which could be soon,” Larson said. “I think it’s taught me to love a lot of different beings on this earth that aren’t necessarily like me.”
This story was originally published July 13, 2023 at 5:15 AM.
