Obedience, the Toad

It was one of those beautiful August evenings that just begged for staying up a bit past bedtime. We were all sitting on the shady side of the house, watching the colors of sunset deepen in the sky. Well, I was watching. The kids were staging races, catching toads, making mud soup for toad habitats, and screaming for help when caterpillars went out of control. "It's crawling up my arm! My arm! My aah aaahhhh!"

In the midst of all of this someone decided they needed to run inside for a vital tool for habitat construction. I was lounging on the step. While moving aside to let the little engineer by I noted a fistful of toad.

"Hey," I said, in a very mom like tone. "No toads in the house."

The child paused midway through the door, looked at the toad in a very kid like way, and continued through the door, tossing the toad aside absently.

I happened to be sitting smack dab in the path of obedience...
                          .
                                                               .......except down a step or two....
                                                      
  

Just so you know, obedience isn't all that noble looking when it's up in your face.

Ambiguous about amphibians...

While hanging laundry out I discovered a toad, so of course I called the kids over to see. The kids were thrilled! That's "thrilled" in a stand-offish, I'm-not-gonna-touch-it-YOU-touch-it kind of way. The likelihood of anybody laying hand on it was dampened by the spray of pee it emitted as I picked it up. That is one smart little fella. He is relatively unmolested, in one piece, and has resumed his job of happily devouring mosquitoes and the like in my backyard.