The Thing in the Door

We're in Houston, yesserree,bob! Last night I was letting Jack the dog outside to go to the bathroom. I opened the back door, let him outside, and closed the door. The door wouldn't shut all the way, so I thought maybe I had Jack's tail caught in the door. I called, "Go outside!" to Jack (I couldn't actually see outside because it was dark) but he didn't seem to be there, i.e. he didn't yelp when his tail may have gotten shut in the door...so I pulled the door closed again- only to have it NOT close again. I wondered to myself, "What is going on here?" Then I looked down at the INSIDE floor and SCREAMED for my boys, "AAUUGHHH! HELP! HELP! HEEELLLPPPP! COME QUICK!!" Silence. About 10 seconds later I heard movement on the stairs, the boys too mesmerized by their electronic games to rush immediately to Mom's aid. On the tile floor right inside the door (which must have been sitting on the door jam to block the door closure) was a HUGE daddy toad. A giant one! I was afraid it would hop all over the house and wanted the boys to get is ASAP. Well, they all started laughing and they also felt sad fot the toad, because evidently I broke the its back and mangled his leg when I tried to close the door on him. Needless to say, Mr. Toad wasn't going anywhere fast.

I really didn't mean to hurt the big guy. I just didn't want him hopping around the house.

This isn't the first critter that's visited our house here in The Woodlands/Houston. A few years ago, Brian was getting a shower and noticed a big old green gecko (lizard) in the shower with him. Brian just went on and finished his shower, and didn't say a word about his company to me. Later in the morning as I was showering, I looked over and found a bright green bug-eyed lizard staring at me from inside my shower! I quickly covered up with a towel and begged the boys to come to my rescue and take the gecko outside...which they gladly did, laughing hysterically! When I phoned Brian to tell him what I'd found in the shower, he told me he'd showered with it too and wanted to surprise me so he left it there to give me company in the shower.

All I can say is I'm glad these critters weren't snakes! They need to stay outside.