Dead slugs, happy toad

The corner of my garden usually stays fairly damp because of lack of sunlight and so of course slugs love it. Not having any slug killing pellets handy, I put out a saucer of beer. Each day I would go out and dump the dead slugs and refill it with more beer. One day when I went to empty it I saw a big brown clump of soil in it. Wondering how that got in there I bent down to pick it up and it jumped out and hid under the bushes. Scared the bejeesus outta me!! After a few moments of steady breathing exercises, I searched and found a little drunken toad. How it came to be in my garden, I have no idea, but I welcomed it by continuous fresh beer and its own little upsidedown cracked flower pot house. We both enjoyed this arrangment for a few months until I happened to see the mouse. Not wanting mice to be this close to the house I set out a trap. The old fashioned kind with the metal bar that snaps. Do you know where this story is going? Sure enough, the next day I looked and there he was. Caught in the trap by his crooked little legs. Poor toadie. I released the bar and was planning the proper burial when he pulled his little, sore, legs under him and carefully hopped away.

Mr. toad stayed around for a couple of years. I was always surprised to see him in the spring, not knowing how he survived the winter months here. Of course, no more mouse traps!! Then one year I bought him a new house. A nice house. A double decker house with decorations of flowers and toads on it. Haven't seen him since.


This is not my Mr. Toad. This is a picture that Laura took of her Mr. Frog who scared the bejeesus out of her one year.