Creature Feature: A Toady Intruder

Living out here in the bush, your neighbors are animals. Although we each have our own tents, the animals don’t care much about your privacy and when given the chance, will invade your personal quarters. I’ve had insects and small lizards get into my tent before but a few nights ago, a larger intruder got in.

It was nighttime, around about eight o’ clock. I was fiddling about on my computer and getting ready to take a late night shower. As I did, I suddenly heard a noise in my tent, a strange wet slap. I sat up, listening but the noise didn’t continue. Thinking nothing of it, I began to gather up my shower supplies.

Then a shape jumped in front of me. I must confess, I screamed in fright and scurried backward, afraid it was a rat or a snake. But the shape was in fact a large brown toad. The toad sat there for a moment before I moved again. Startled, it jumped underneath my desk and hid there.

Once I got over my shock, I realized I had an intruder to deal with! I looked under the desk and found the toad cowering next to the wall, watching me with his bulging eyes. Not wanting to touch him and risk harming him, I searched around for something I could put Mr. Toad in. After a moment, my eyes settled on my trash bin and I grabbed it.

I nudged the trash bin towards the toad, trying to coax him inside. Mr. Toad wasn’t having any of that and leaped past the trash bin, hopping behind my cupboard. Sighing, I got my flashlight and looked behind the cupboard, finding Mr. Toad hiding in the small gap at its back. Unable to reach him squeezed under my cupboard like that, I tried to move the entire thing.

This was easier said than done. The cupboard was incredibly heavy and as I struggled to move it, the whole thing nearly tipped over. I managed to catch, adjusting it enough that it didn’t fall and there was a space to reach the toad. I then slapped the trash bin at the open space and tried to push the toad toward it. Unfortunately, he wasn’t going for it and kept hopping in the opposite direction.

After some slapstick antics of chasing Mr. Toad around, I finally managed to nudge him into the trash can. Lifting it up gently, I headed outside and put the trash bin on the grass. The toad didn’t move so I gently prodded him with a blade of grass and he hopped off into the night. I watched him go, proud I had helped him escape with minimal fuss, and then headed back into my tent to finally get ready for my shower.

Jake McDaniel