Ribbitttt!

In the few months that I’ve lived with my family, I have come across some strange but interesting backyard creatures. There were the lizards, snakes, butterflies and squirrels. I thought I’ve seen everything there was to see in my backyard. I was wrong.

Today I saw a new creature. It was small little thing that hopped across the grass. Boy, did this thing peak my puppy senses! I wanted to catch it, but mommy yelled at me to leave it alone. She put me on a leash, and only let me get so close to it without touching it.

It hopped a little more in the grass, and I thought it was the such a cute little thing. But mommy told me that it might be dangerous for me to touch it. She said it looked like a toad — and there’s a toad that’s poisonous to doggies if they touch it. It’s called the Bufo Toad.

See the picture on the left? That’s the toad. Does anyone recognize it?

Just to be safe, I’m going to try to stay away from all the little creatures that jump across the yard. Oh who am I kidding? Mommy will try and keep me away from all the little creatures that jump across the yard. I’m just a puppy — I’m not supposed to be able to control myself yet! (or am I?)

Mommy told me about some other frogs that they found in our backyard, just last summer. These two are called Cuban Treefrogs. These types of frogs are not native to Florida, where I live. They are an invasive species. That means that they are taking over the land of the native frogs (the frogs who were born here).

The frog in the picture below was found on the outside wall of our house, and the frog in the picture on the right was found on the top of our pool ladder.

According to the University of Florida, these Cuban Treefrogs are not being nice to our natural ecosystems. What that means, is that they are moving in and making Florida’s native frogs disappear. How sad is that?!

All you doggies out there — have you ever had a bad experience with a frog? I wanna hear about it. 🙂

Woofs & hugs! ~Bailey