We have a new outside pet. Minnie Moo & I named him Toady Lumps. His skills include jumping, lumping, and (smartly) hunting bugs under the outside light. He’s lived with us for about four months now, after we rescued him from living as a stray on the streets.

When Toby first found him, Toady was a young ‘un at half his current size. Toby found Toady in the plantings against the stone foundation on the quietest side of our house. That Side Door is the one Mom uses to let me in when my old bones hurt (there are less steps to climb into the house).

Toby had been chasing a tiny baby bunny around the perimeter of the fence, and eventually the bunny escaped through the space between the gate post and the closed gate. Toby  bolted into an uncommon burst of speed, full tilt, crying out wolfy hunting yips as he chased that bunny along the lengths of the fence. Overexcited, and looking for the bunny that simply vanished into thin air, Toby sniffed near the gatepost and all around that corner of the house, where Toady was lazing in a patch of speedwell along the cool stone steps of the Side Door. He was a tiny baby toad, and Toby excitedly picked up the tiny toad mistaking him for the bunny.

Bleh!!! Toby was expecting a fuzzy baby bunny, but spit out a lumpy, not-tasty toad instead! At that point, my Mom rescued Toady by picking him up and placing him outside of the fence, underneath the stonecrop planted in the front of the house.

Toady’s been with us ever since. He got this big because he smartly hunts under the outside light, the bug buffet  otherwise known as the SmorgasBug.