Frozen toad

So there I was. Minding my own business, walking the dog in the back field, when I noticed a most unusual lump of leaf litter in the frost.

A fall style conglomoration of tree debris is was not. It was a frozen toad.


Now comes the real question. Is said toad dead, or did it merely pick an unfortunate place to begin its winter hibernation. According to the few sites I visited, toads and frogs will normally burrow underground before going into hibernation. This toad had picked a shady, frost covered spot along a mowed path, and it was virtually undestinguishable from the grass and twigs around it. And it was quite hard. Like a lump of frozen chicken after its been sitting in the fridge for about an hour hard. So that means solid but you can tell there's some give somewhere.

Needless to say, I took it up to the porch and let it sit in the sun for awhile to see what would happen.

It started to soften. To the point where I could poke its side and the skin would move in, only to push back out into shape as soon as I had released my finger.

Nature is a wonderful and disgusting thing.

Without further ado, my mother and I, who is my partner in crime in many of these things, promptly took an old tupperware-style spaghetti container and used it to make the toad a hibernaculum (look down toward the bottom of the page on the link).

And isn't hibernaculum a great word? Fantastico! As Eddie Izzard would say.

A bit of dirt in the bottom ...



Insert one toad (semi-frozen at this point.)


Cover with leaf litter and a brick to mark where the (say it with me) hibernaculum is.


And you have a wonderful Sunday morning discovery and project.

Now we just have to hope that the toad was merely unfortunate in its decision to nestle into a not so secret hibernation space. Because if it was actually dead and just frozen from the first heavy (though ironically not killing) frost of the year, then my mother will have a nasty surprise come spring. Perhaps some skunk will come along and make the toad into a frozen entree, best enjoyed by gnawing until chewable. Yummmmmm.

I love this frozen toad. I think I'm going to make him in to a T-shirt design.