Toad Space
I encountered a toad the other day as I was preparing a garden bed for planting. He nearly went unnoticed, being the same size and colour as a clump of the soil I was working. But he hopped, and dirt doesn't do that. A toad is a very ordinary thing to find outdoors in spring time, but I reflected that I haven't seen many of them lately. When I was young, there wasn't a day in the green or brown seasons when I didn't see a toad, a turtle, a crayfish, or some similar small creature up close and personal. In recent years, these encounters have been less frequent, mostly just during camping trips. Rarely, there will be some accidental visitor to "human" space. A few years ago, during a torrential rainstorm, a toad had hopped into the library with the morning deliveries and had to be redirected. Around ten years past, I rescued a crayfish from a hotel pool. Still, the daily contact has been missing. Maybe part of my critter filled childhood was due t