Teeny-tiny Toad Tot!

Michael and I were out doing preliminary storm preparations just in case Tropical Storm Debbie decides to pay us a visit.  There is always a mass of things that need to be tended and we thought we might as well get a  jump start.  While he was putting some of the final pieces of siding on the shed, I went around securing any loose items that might blow away.  As I was putting out fishing gear in the shed, I noticed a dot in one of the buckets..and that dot moved!  Granted it was a large dot so I assumed it was some sort of bug.  Now before you think that I am going off on a tangent about another insect that I found, think again.  This turned out not to be a creepy-crawly insect but the tiniest toad that I believe I have ever seen!  "What are you doing in the bucket, Little One?"  I said aloud as if the toad would understand and answer.  It did not.  Rather it just stared at me as if I was disrupting its naptime or something.  

This little toad is one of many that has hatched out in the Frog Pond.  I am happy to see that some have survived their first few days on dry land.  It has to be extremely hard for something so tiny to find anything to eat.  The parent toads take their job of raising kids very lightly and do not care for them one iota!  Why these  parents will even make a meal out of their little ones if they spy them soon after the tots leave the pond!  Poor little tykes!  Still, that did not answer the question as to how and why this little toad was in the bucket!  I thought about lifting it out but decided that my fumbling fingers might squish the little guy so I tilted the bucket ever so gently to its side.  To get a picture showing the minute size of the toad, I carefully placed a squash seed near it!  The seed was larger than the baby!  The tiny toad tot stared at the gigantic squash seed that I laid before it and I can only imagine what it was thinking.  "So that is what she is serving me for lunch..what does she think I am...a vegetarian?"  Maybe I should have caught it a mosquito or something!  Anyway, after the picture-taking session was over, I tilted the bucket a bit further and let the toad hop out at its own pace.  Once on the ground, the little guy quickly disappeared beneath the leaves of a petunia plant.

Looking at that tiny toad, I again marveled at the fragility of life.  Things have to be tough to make it in the wild here on the Bayou..there are just so many predators afoot but to get to that point of toughness, a lot of trials have to be met.  This little toad might just be one of the tough ones.  It had survived being trapped in that bucket perhaps by sheer will to live.  If I was able to help it on its way by releasing it..so be it.  Perhaps it will return the favor some day by eating the bugs in my garden.  My question....."How did it get in that bucket in the first place?"  Live on, Little Toad, live on!