Anyway, I'm sprawled across one mulched path trying to get all the little bits of green that are threatening to outgrow my carrots when I hear a raucous yelling from next door. What the...? It's our little neighbor girl, A, calling me name. (Did I just channel my pirate personality from a past life? ;) She comes bearing gifts! I've already given it away in the title, unless you're really extra dense, but the gift was indeed three of the tiniest, most smoochable toads I have ever seen! I really, really wanted to kiss them, even if I didn't get one of these out of the deal, but they were so little and so very, very hoppy. These little fellas were about the size of my pinky fingernail. SO cute. A's mom, J, managed to get two of them onto Madame TrashHeap (aka, the compost pile) and one into my jungle of lemon balm. Hopefully these little guys will stick around 'cause we were really being eaten by the mosquitoes today!
Wait! Where in the Darkness did my neighbor get baby toads? Apparently, she had walked with her kids to the library, and on the way back, they were stunned to see the sidewalk and road literally hoppin' with these little guys. We've surmised that they must have come from a clutch of eggs laid in a mud puddle somewhere. Knowing that they were gonna get smushed by the oncoming traffic, J scooped up about 10 of them into one of the bags that they'd been carrying library books in. She let 7 go in her garden and presented the remaining three to their new home with us. Woohoo!
I truly wish I had a picture of these irresistably cute little buggers, but they were much too bouncy to capture on film. Instead, I'll leave you with a picture of (whom I hope is still) their competition: Mr. Toad, whom I uncovered last year while ripping up the English ivy (Hedera helix) behemoth that covered what is now my perennial/herb bed. I really hope he stuck around after I demolished his home, but I haven't seen him since... :(
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