"I didn't have these, specifically," Alex says, setting the dozing frog back into its enclosure and picking up one of its tankmates to repeat the process.

"When I was a teenager I helped my parents and some family friends raise some very colorful little guys like this, but with feathers. These ones were endangered, we were breeding them to try to repopulate their native habitat."

He speaks very evenly and calmly as he works, having to focus on the feeling to keep projecting it to the animals. But there is something comforting about something this repetitive and routine- plus, the frogs were pretty cute.