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The princess and the toad

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By JackmamaPublished 2 years ago 3 min read
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A few years ago, our family adopted a 1 year old Siberian-born Eskimo we named Princess Masha. Like all Siberians, Masha loves to be outdoors. After her regular nightly walks, she would sleep fully stretched out on the cold rooftop in the front yard of the house.

One summer evening, we were sitting on the front patio enjoying the breeze when we saw a tiny toad jump out of the grass and down the sidewalk just inches from Masha. Suddenly, Martha stood up, walked over to the toad, picked it up in her mouth, and returned to her resting place to lie down again. We watched in amazement as she turned her head to the sidewalk and opened her mouth for the toad to jump out. The toad sat right in front of Martha and the two of them seemed to stare at each other for a long time before the toad jumped off the sidewalk and disappeared into the grass.

The same thing happened on many a midsummer night, and perhaps Martha was fond of these toads? But we were a little worried because some of the toads might be poisonous. However, Martha didn't seem to be harmed, and she never harmed these toads, so we didn't intervene. After this, if Martha saw a toad on the sidewalk while walking, she would run over and nudge the little thing with her nose until it was safe to jump off the sidewalk back into the grass and walk away.

The next summer was the same. Martha still liked to stay on the front patio from dusk to cool off. Many times we noticed a toad just inches from her face on the ground or and we watched as Martha went into the grass, took a toad in her mouth, returned to her resting place, and then let it go. Martha would spend more time with that toad during the night and the toad grew larger and larger.

In the summer of our third year, we let Martha out into the yard when we saw a large toad jump out of the grass and stop inches from Martha. Martha gently lowered her head so that her nose could just touch the toad. All at once it dawned on us - maybe that was the same toad! Could Martha have been sharing all three summers with the same toad? We called a local wildlife biologist who told us that a toad has a lifespan of three to six years, so it's entirely possible. In any case, it was really strange to us that these two alien species, which seemed absolutely impossible to be together, became close friends, but then we realized: we and Martha are also two completely different species, but the love between us is quite natural. If it could love us, why couldn't it love a toad?

During that summer, Martha had a minor surgery and we kept her inside for a while to recover. But every night it wanted to go outside. One night, a few days later, I turned on the hallway light to welcome our pre-arranged guests. When the light illuminated the front foyer, I was shocked: Todd (the name we gave the toad) was standing there! Staring at me through the screen door! It had jumped up three full steps from the patio and we guessed it was looking for Martha.

Such persistence was too much to resist, and we let Martha out to meet its mate. She immediately took the toad into her mouth and walked down the steps where she made out with Todd nose to nose. From then on, if Martha didn't go out for a while, Todd would come to the front door from time to time to wait for it. We would turn the porch light on before dark and made a prominent sign to put on the porch: "Please don't step on the toad!"

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Jackmama

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