She's a Natural Beauty

Last summer a toad set up house in our garage. She was welcome to all the mosquitoes, flies and spiders she could eat. I thought she was amusing.

Toads need an outside source of moisture for their skin. Many mornings I would find her in Kitty's water bowl. It was just the right size for her and she could rest comfortably on the bottom of the bowl with her nose and eyes just above the surface of the water.

Kitty was not amused. He knew from experience that toads secrete a toxin that makes them taste very bad! Sure that his water was made to taste the same way, I changed it daily.

"Outdoor toads" spend the hot summer days in holes where they can stay cool and moist. When the sun came up in the mornings our garage toad would hop under furniture stored in our garage to hide and rest until night.

Toads also hibernate in the ground in winter. As fall approached and the days grew shorter I became concerned about Garage Toad. The area underneath the furniture was not sufficient for the long winter and she sure wasn't going to be digging a hole in the cement floor.

So each day I moved Kitty's water bowl closer to the garage door. And each morning I left the garage door cracked a few inches for her.

Eventually her instincts took over and she hopped off to find her winter home.

If you look closely at this toad's picture you can see the sand on her face. I took her picture just a few minutes after she hopped out of her hole that is just next to our home's foundation. I like to think this is Garage Toad.