Hippity Hoppity

I have written so much about the mice out here in the sticks and I have occasionally touched on some of the other animals we encounter on a regular basis.  Today I want to share one of my favorite groups of animals we get to play with.  It is winter so we aren't seeing these guys right now but during the spring, summer, and fall we get inundated with frogs and toads.

My daughter loves these particular animals.  She also loves lizards but we'll leave that for another day. 

These two were found in a hole when my daughter and mother were watering the potted plants.  They were curled up together and my daughter dragged them out to carry them the 100 yards to our house.  I opened the door and this is what I saw:

My little ragamuffin - I think she was as dirty as the toads.

She was able to find these two in the same hole on two other days.  They finally got tired of being ripped from their home and moved on to find a more peaceful abode.

On another day, we were tearing out some dead plants.  My son and daughter pulled up a dead lavender plant and found a very fat toad.  He was safely hiding amidst the roots.

Her hands are masking his fat belly but he measured about 5 inches across at his mid section.  We put him back in his hole and caught him one more time before he moved out.  My children have yet to catch on to the cause and effect nature of catching animals.  Kids catch, animal moves away. 

During the summer, we will drive home in the dark and it is toad/frog mania.  We have counted 15 toads jumping around the driveway and yard at one time. 

One night this guy hopped up to the wall of our house and was tying to escape behind a storage container. In my efforts to move him back toward the grass, I dropped him on top of the container. 

At this point, he peed all over the container.  Yes, my fumbling scared the piss out of him.  I really need to leave the animal handling up to my daughter.

Another night I went out to give the dogs water and found this handsome guy waiting for me:

I took a quick pic but afterward I felt a little bad. I am guessing their eyes are not used to such bright lights.  The next day I moved the water dish and there he was, safely hiding in the dirt underneath.  He became a fairly regular resident under the water dish but that is to be expected now that I blinded him.

Most of what we see are toads but occassionally we find tree frogs.  My kids had a blow up swimming pool at Grandma's house.  One day they found this guy taking a swim:

Over the summer months I think my daughter caught 3 or 4 of these guys.  You may have noticed I have said a lot about my daughter catching these guys.  My son gets very excited about the animals but is much more hesitant about touching them.  He leaves that up to his fearless older sister.  Isn't it great that she actually gets to catch these slippery slimy things?  How sad that so many kids never get to see these things out of a cage...