Hop Toads

When I was a kid we lived on a street that ran between a river and a creek that feeds into it. As a result we had numerous "visitors" in our backyard--everything from copperhead snakes to muskrats, even an escaped naked mental patient (that's another story.)

Anyhow, my mother reminded me of the time that my brother and I (we were about 3 and 4years old) collected a bucket-full of tiny hop toads that had invaded our yard. These are the little guys that are about 3/4 of an inch and pee on you when you pick them up. Well, we decided that we were going to "liberate" some of these little toads by taking them to Grandma's house and setting them free in her big yard.

So we got in the Impala with our bucket-o-toads and set off for Grandma's house--a mere two miles away. Well, on the way there the bucket fell over and the toads escaped. That's right, dozens of little toads hopping around inside the car. So we pulled over and tried to put them back in the bucket or let them out of the car. So a few made it to Grandma's house but most of them were set free along the road somewhere.