Monday, June 1, 2009

Ahhh....Toads.

There are few animals capable of bringing more joy than a toad. Toads had a variety of attributes that made them desirable for Rugglets. For one, they were durable. You could hold a toad all day and it would be fine thanks to its dry skin, unlike a frog. They were ready eaters in captivity, which means you could keep them. You could skip a toad across ditch water three or four times and the thing would swim off no problem. They could even survive Cherish, who would scream "fwog!" until Mom made us go out and catch one, no matter how much we protested on behalf of the toad's well-being (Dad still claims this as Cherish's first word). It also helped that they were easy to find and catch. We were constantly hunting them, partly because they were fun and partly because Dad offered an unbelievable monetary sum (100 dollars, if I remember) for the capture of a rare Houston toad. We never found one, always just the more common Gulf Coast toad. They didn't bite, didn't move too fast and were virtually ubiquitous. You could even catch them as tadpoles and let them grow up. There seemed to be swarms of them in the ditches after rain. My favorite time was a few weeks after a big summer storm when all the tadpoles had grown up into extremely tiny toads, which were (and no other word choice would be appropriate here) adorable. One night we foolishly decided to catch as many as we could and load them into one of our many terrariums. The haul was 34, plus a couple tree frogs. Unfortunately, this was the equivalent of starting a night club for toads and their flirtation consists of loud and incessant ribbiting which effectively prevented any sleep on our part. In the morning we just dumped them unceremoniously into the umbrella grass, glad to be rid of them. I don't think there is any Rugglet that can say he or she hasn't kissed a toad. They served as pets, toys, novelty prank items (Sorry, Mom!), pacifiers, friends (for those of us who had none else), and stuffed animals. To a poor family this plague of toads was manna from heaven.

7 comments:

Alison said...

Awww I love toads. And yes, the baby toads are adorable and were always my favorite to play with.

Martin Andrews said...

There is no better way to relive those days than catching a baby toad or big one and bringing it inside for the kids to scream at! They can't even contain their excitement. I also to this day randomly find a purse to place a lost toad in and often times I'll leave before it is found. Its almost funner that way...

Rugo said...

Nice.

Jennifer said...

The kids love the tiny toads. Also, you'll be proud to know, worms. Claire is the best and the bravest.

Brian said...

Remember when one of your pac-man frogs disappeared one night, and the other got exceptionally fatter? And then the fat one died? They sure were dumb. Also - they used to bite each other's face when their mouths were open. Good times.

Tracethenfold said...

the count that night was 64 toads and a tree frog. as much as i love gulf coast toads, i think my favorite toad ever was trample and he wasn't a gulf coast toad.

Tracethenfold said...

one of my most horrific memories of toads was when we tagged them for further study.......oh the horror.