Farewell to Toady

Now Gerrit is going to get warts!

Last summer we had a toad that fell into the window well for our basement egress window outside the boy's new bedroom. We named him Toady. We'll assume Toady is male - I didn't try to sex him/her. I have no interest in knowing how, either, unless it is a visual clue.

He had it pretty good there. The nice pea gravel to burrow down in and the supply of crickets and other insects that would also fall inside and become trapped made for easy food and shelter. I took him out once but the next day he was back down there. We left him over the winter, not knowing if he survived or not. Sure enough, early this summer he made his appearance.

I started to feel bad for him. Unless a female fell in the well with him there was no chance for him to start a family. I have no problem with a few more toads in the world. I noticed he was above the pea gravel on Sunday evening so I caught him and released him in the foliage on the north side of our house. We haven't seen him since.

After a rain early the next morning I could hear toads croaking in the open area north of our house. Hopefully Toady found them and is able to live a natural toad's life. Good luck, Toady!

Oh, and after I returned from Brandon, SD last evening I found a striped gopher in the window well. I promptly "took care" of that bugger. I've had a lot of problems with gophers in the garden this year and it has been sort of a battle. I'm not quite to the point of Carl Spackler, the groundskeeper from Caddyshack, though.