Our oldest daughter, Taylor, permanently terrified her younger sister Ari with creepy-crawlies growing up. Determined not to make the same mistake years later with her new baby sister, Taylor gently but incessantly introduced Beth to everything from spiders to snakes. 

Tay almost went into veterinary medicine, and both she and Bethie were devastated when Tay left home for college on her long journey to becoming a medical doctor. Mourning Tay’s absence, Bethie comforted herself with the critters Tay had taught her to love. 

One fine summer night Bethie accidentally added a new creature to her compendium of companions while observing toads catching insects on the warm garage concrete by my flower gardens. Wondering what would happen if she tried to pet one of the amphibians, Beth grabbed a catnip leaf, singled out an old, slow hopper and lightly touched the big toad’s side. To Beth’s delight, the croaker closed its eyes and leaned into the leaf strokes. At first Beth couldn’t tell if the toad liked being petted or was reacting to the catnip as her own cats did, but when she learned to be gentle enough to pet toads with her finger instead of a leaf, she knew the answer.

Like she did much of her youth, Bethie self-documented some of these encounters. Below I’ve posted  one of the first toad-petting videos which she recorded, along with an interview of pointers she shared with me on what she’s learned through the years about toads. [My additions are in brackets.]

Warning: This is quite a departure from my usual offerings, utterly lacking romance, unless that word is interpreted in the very broadest sense. Beth washes her hands after such earthy adventures, but when you’re dealing with nature, things tend to get messy no matter how much you sanitize. Delicate readers may wish to skip this post.

Tips for New Toad Whisperers

By Beth

My big takeaway is, listen to your intrusive thoughts. In my case it worked out pretty well. I’ve always liked catching toads and stuff. One night I was outside, just kind of out there, looking at toads, looking at June bugs, and there was this one toad. I was just watching it and had the idea to pet a toad. I did, and it was like spa day for the toad. 

I started going out every night or every other night, very consistently. Some toads did not like it at all and would hop away in a panic. I pretty quickly learned that not all toads react the same, especially the younger toads. The younger ones you really cannot do it with. It would be very cute to pet a little baby toad, but no. The young ones don’t like it.

Some bigger toads still wouldn’t like it, either. They would hop away or pee. And at first you can’t use your hands, ’cause you’re not used to petting something that fragile, but you kind of get it. It was exciting. Some really liked it. I mean, they’re still wild animals, even if they’re toads. They were still very wary of me. I would pet them, then I would move a little bit and they would hop away.

The big ones were the main ones who liked petting. I named a few. One was Ari [after her older sister], a tannish color. A couple were a bit more toned down, a bit more tamed. One was missing a foot: Red Sand or Sandy, something sand-related because it was reddish-brownish. It was the smallest but still pretty big. Bruno was more brownish.

For anyone looking to pet toads, be very gentle. Start out with a little leaf of something. Remember this is a tiny little creature. Be so gentle, so gentle. Pet the toad’s side lightly, like you’re applying makeup or dusting the little toad. And then, as you get better, you can start using your fingers. Keep in mind these are wild animals. You’re not going to make a pet toad out of any of them. Give them their own space when they hop away from you. Don’t crowd them too much. See if they want to be petted. Sometimes they’ll love it, sometimes they’ll hate it, sometimes they’ll pee on you. You’re in their face, so whatever happens really depends on you.

I haven’t gone out this year, but I do every year. I like to pet toads. I haven’t really been out at night yet. It’s still early. Dad has seen some. Yeah, this June I’ll start petting toads again [laughs]. I’m good with other animals, but there’s really something with toads. When you look at tiny, little things, like spiders and toads, you get a different perspective on life.