Meet Toadie

Meet Toadie

I actually don't know if it was male or female...I switched between calling him Mr. Toadie and Big Mama...just depened on my mood I guess.

Anyway, this picture was taken in 2000. The picture is somewhat the worse for wear as you can see by the scrathes, etc. But I wanted to use it because I thought this might be a fun post. This is one of our daughters holding him...if you rubbed his side or belly he would lean into it. And if you rubbed right above and between his eyes he would close his eyes and hold ever so still.

I am wondering if we will see him this year or if something happened to him last year. Last year we only seen him two or three times early in the year. The last time I held him, he completely filled my palm width wise--he was one fat healthy boy. My palm is at least 3 or 3 1/2 inches wide. We would knock bugs/moths down for him. If we actually killed the bug, we would place it in front of him and blow on it to make it move, otherwise he would not attempt to eat it.

What's more, as a kid, we had a toad that came up on our porch almost every night in search of food...we all know how lights attract bugs at night. Only down there, he had to climb up a flight of 6 or 7 steps. After I moved to Indiana and told my husband about him, he kind of thought I was being funny or something till we went home and he seen it for himself.

Anyway, we all really have a soft spot for toads...if I am mowing and see one move, I stop and catch it and move it out of danger. With the exception of one summer, seeing a toads here is sort of rare. That one summer, I think my daughter and I sat outside with a flashlight and could 10 or 12 small toads. That had never happened before and never since.