Escape!

The past few nights have not felt very restful. After the adventure with the pipes, both J and I are feeling a little skittish about the house and adding major demolition hasn't helped. Plus, we were used to the noises our house usually makes, but when huge chunks of it are torn up and carted away, the noises are different, and in the middle of the night quite disturbing. (J has twice gone walking around the demolished half of the house in the middle of the night, carrying a large section of pipe, because of noises we couldn't identify.) And not only are our lives somewhat disrupted, but the vermin who constantly vie with us for possession are as well. We can now see where raccoons (or possibly squirrels) have gnawed away sections between ceilings and floors to make their own condominium and the remains of nests have also been discovered. Then there are the mice who think of our home as their personal restaurant that have also been displaced. So it wasn't surprising to me when last night I heard the sound of some small animal under or behind our bed. I was tired and decided that if I pretended the sound wasn't there then whatever was making the sound didn't exist. But J heard it as well and decided to wage battle. With shoe in hand he started to slowly move furniture away from the wall. At one point he saw something move and decided it was a mouse and was spurred on to keep searching. I have now decided that I should prepare to bolt should the invader decide to attack. Then J yells, "I see it! It's a ......frog!" Yes, indeed it was a frog, a very dusty frog. Or to be more precise, a very dusty fire-bellied toad. (A species, for those who are interested in such things, which secrete toxins from their skin.) Since the toad belongs to M, we woke her up to return the escapee to her tank. We have no idea how Isabella, the toad, managed to jump out of her tank, but I'm sure she is going to spend the day pouting over the failure of her escape despite the carefully planned disguise of jumping dust bunny.