September 1st — Last night, Sara was doing her homework at the dining room table while absentmindedly poking at the dirt in a potted plant on the table. A live toad jumped out of the soil! Sara screamed in shock as Mr. Toad disappeared under the sofa. That potted plant had been outside to be watered so Mr. Toad must have hitched a ride inside. We got the flashlights out, moved furniture, got long sticks to poke under armchairs but there was no sign of the toad. I worried all last night that our cats would find him in the middle of the night or the toad would stay in our house and starve to death (although we do get a fair number of flies in the house from all the doors left opened by children running in and out). This morning, Mr. Toad was sitting in our living room waiting for Sara to pick him up and return him to the great outdoors. With all the tadpoles we’ve nurtured and released over the last two years, it’s not a surprise that we have adult toads. This weekend is when turtle eggs are supposed to hatch if our courtyard turtles have gotten busy. We’ve seen some baby-making activity but no eggs and no baby turtles yet. All we need now are lizards and snakes and we’ll complete our reptile/amphibian wildlife sanctuary on Greenhill Place.
Try to post picture of the turtle hatchings. Would love to see those. Tell Sara I would have screamed too, with Mr. Toad jumping like that…whats a girl to do?
What kind of turtles to you have on your patio? Someone called me at Urban Harvest a while ago wanting to find a “home” for a box turtle that used to live under her porch. She may have found a home, just checking. And, I’m so very glad for your continued good health, keep up the good work. And the good blog.