Villain of the Moment, Hero for the Day

About 4 years ago, my dear brother gave the kids a Planet Frog for Christmas. Since we're a military family, it sat and sat until we felt we were in one place long enough to keep frogs that live for 8 or 9 years. We moved once. We moved twice. We finally settled back in the States and thought we might as well go ahead and order the darn tadpoles for this thing.
I ordered them in September, hoping they would get here before it started to get really cold outside. What a sad thing it would be to have frozen tadpoles delivered to your front step.
They sent me an email stating they had been shipped and should arrive within a day. I watched and waited, they finally came...slightly chilled, but unharmed by the cold day. I read through the booklet that came with the frog terrarium and it said they should get their legs within 4-6 weeks. It is now almost May and one of the two tadpoles got his legs about two weeks ago! (They were only off by several months.)
The other tadpole has yet to bloom.
This last Tuesday, I was looking at the terrarium and thinking it was in desperate need of a cleaning. So, while the home school monitor was chatting with my husband, I ran to the store to get some bottled water, came back and put the tadpole and frog into a Tupperware container with water in it, cleaned out the terrarium, and prepared to put them back in their home. After the frog made it safely back into his hiding place, I dumped a bit of the water out of the Tupperware container into the sink. As I did so, the tadpole squirted his way out of the bowl and into the sink. I yelped out loud as he slipped straight down the garbage disposal drain. All eyes turned to me.
With the home school monitor, husband, and all three children watching, I shoved my hand down the drain to try to rescue our poorly developed friend. "What a tragic thing it would be," I thought, "if we were to wait all this time for him to get his legs and he dies before we even get that far!" I felt around, and thankfully (because it was the garbage disposal side of the sink) he was still there. But, I couldn't get my fingers around him. He was so slippery and small. I didn't want to pinch him too hard, but I didn't want him to stay down there too long either. There wasn't enough standing water for him to survive for long. I got hold of his tail several times, only to have him slip right out of my grasp. Finally, after a full minute of frantic feeling around, I managed to get ahold of his head without hurting him, pulled him out, and dropped him back into the terrarium.
"I got him!" I cried.
Everyone finally breathed.
We watched to see if he would move. When I was sure that he was alive and okay, I collapsed on the kitchen floor. My hands were shaking, my chest hurt, and I was terribly embarrassed. I had managed to be a villain and a hero all in a matter of a minute and a half.
Next time I'll use a strainer and stop up the sink.
(Note to self: Add this to the list of things not to do with the home school monitor present.)
Sheesh.