It's not easy, being green

When I was 10, we moved out into the country to a house my parents built. Now to be fair, "in town" was nothing more than 3 streets and about 100 residents.

It wasn't long before we realized that we needed a bug zapper. You know, those old school electrified cages with a light inside. Not only did they provide hours of entertainment for us redneck kids, but the bats and frogs loved the easy pickins.

We had one toad in particular that was an obvious "corn fed" toad. He was huge. Probably the size of both of my fists together (or just one of Gene's. lol) Let's just say, he obviously indulged at the bug zapper cafe on a regular basis and almost never did laps.

He lived inside of some tiling, that was attached to the downspout and ran underground for drainage, the end peeking out somewhere between the house and the garage.

Mom loved him, and always made a point to yell at us to not to run over her toad when mowing the yard. He was fast tho, he'd never let us pick him up, as he would only come out a few inches past the end of the tube. If you approached, he'd zip back in. Pretty fast for a big dude.

Tonight, Cadience went out to play and came in hollering that there was a frog outside. Well, of course, I wouldn't pass up the opportunity for a good picture. Turns out it was a little grey toad, sitting on the step. No more than a couple inches, and looking exactly like a rock. Cadience had a good eye, because I probably wouldn't have noticed him and just passed by.

Tanner came out, and they decided they would catch him and put him in a container for a little while so they could look at him up close.

Times don't change and seems he's a pretty fast mover too.

He jumped. There was chasing, there was more jumping, and more chasing. I went inside for fear of seeing a squished toad in someones hand - or hair. But a few minutes later someone comes in announcing that there's a frog too!

A foot or so away, sitting on a lawn chair, taking in the scenery, this bright green tree frog had alluded everyone until a 5 year old starts looking for his counterpart. Before long, they were all in the thick of it trying to catch the tree frog, as he was a lot more jumpy than the toad.

They were captured, and held captive temporarily in Tanner's tiny bug/fish/mouse cage (the one that holds critters temporarily during the cage/tank cleanings). So then everyone got to have a good look.

In the end, I think it was mom that ended up killing the toad. She ran over him with the lawnmower.

*No frogs/toads/cats were injured in the posting of this posting. I can't make any guarantees for mom tho, she still mows the yard.