Toads

Last night my neighbor and I took our dogs for a walk around the neighborhood. As we're walking, Juno suddenly attacks something in the grass, throwing her feet forward 900 times per second trying to stomp on it. It was dark and I could see was something small and hopping (I figured it was a cricket). Then I realized it was a tiny toad and snatched it up like any normal human being. All I could think of was "the kids will fricken LOVE this!" but soon realized that they were all in bed. Poo. 

But instead of releasing it, I carried it, cupped in my hands, all the way back to the house and tossed it in a mason jar (Daddy nailed some holes in the lid for me). I threw in some grass and a little water, and then put it in outside in our tomato planter to hang out happily (or not) until tomorrow morning. 

So this morning I checked to see if the damn thing was alive (it was) and then brought my kids and my neighbor's three girls out to the back yard to check out the toad. Calen and Sydney got to hold him, her older sister Hailey was NOT interested in touching him and we didn't let Cam hold it because he probably would have POPPED the damn thing (Calen was close to anyways). But he did crouch down and looked at it and then giggled. 

After ten minutes or so I decided to free the toad before he got stepped on/squished/popped/stressed to death. So we put him back in the jar and took a field trip around the fence to the neighboring yard (coincidentally where we found the injured heron in the tree last month) and let it loose. 

And that was that. The kids loved it. I should start my own nature camp. 

Sydney holding the toad and Cam crouching down to get a closer look

Toad. I like the sound of the word "toad."

 

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