A Big Ant and a Mystery in the Pool

I took the kids to the pool tonight, which was not particularly noteworthy, except Joshua found an ant on the ground, and it might have been the biggest ant I've seen in Kansas.  Joshua loves bugs, so he wanted to put it on his arm, so he did.  Look at the size of that thing!

Before we got in the pool, we saw this in the pool.  The kids were split on if it was a big piece of poop or a hot dog.  We were the only ones at the pool, so I thought it was feasible that someone pooped in the pool and then left, but I really hoped that wasn't the case, for multiple reasons.  But it didn't look quite like that, but I also didn't think it was all that likely that there would be a hot dog in the pool.  We wanted to swim, so I was going to have to investigate the object before I could clear the kids to get in the pool.  So I jumped in and looked closely.  I was relieved to find out it was just a cattail.  I explained what it was to the kids, and I'm not sure if they were relieved or disappointed that it wasn't a piece of poop, but either way, we got in the pool and enjoyed a nice evening of swimming.