A Lively Visitor

Reptiles or anything associated don't bother me. Can't hold a big spider, lice or beetle though. Never get potty enough over them to kill them apart from flies and mozzies.

I love frogs and toads, it`s insects and creepy crawlies I`m terrified of. As for bats, we have lots around here, on summer evenings I stand out on the river bank opposite, watching them swoop, and hoping one will land on me, but knowing they never will, unfortunately.
My cat keeps bringing mice into the yard, and I keep annoying her by picking them up and setting them free on the bank, had to rescue a grass snake from her once.

Oh Phoenix, That story reminded me of what happened to one of my sons. He and his wife had been invited to a barn dance at his uncle's school. They thought there was an odd smell in the car as they drove there but couldn't think where it was coming from. When they arrived at his uncle's house his wife was in the bathroom when she heard a scream. My son was putting on his cowboy boots and found a very dead purified frog which it appeared the cat had deposited there. Needless to say it stuck to his sock and his boots didn't go dancing that evening. ?

We had bats in he cavity of one of our houses but they never got further inside than that.
They used to start scratching at night, it was the wall of DS's bedroom but he always slept through it! We couldn't do anything about it but they went eventually and never seemed to come back again, probably found somewhere nicer to live.

Jalima the first few times it fluttered past the open door I just thought it was a very large moth

We used tolive in a very old house with shutters , the bathroom windowsill was lovely and deep and my bathtowel was draped over it . When I climbed out of the old huge cast iron tub I grabbed the towel , threw it over my shoulder to dry my back , felt something scratchy .... a bat !!! seems they were in the wall behind the shutters .The neighbours thought they heard the steam train at the station , I screamed so loudly

phoenix that would really freak me out!!

My cat brought a toad in once. I found it in the kitchen in the morning. Was so surprised I picked it up and took it upstairs to show my husband. He wasn't impressed he had just gone to sleep after a night shift.

Our cats would bring frogs in, apparentely they can't kill them due to the secretions on their skin. We use to have a large pond in the garden & lots of tadpoles & froglets

Last week, DH was taken out for the day, and came back with a present - a terracotta 'toad house'. In fifteen years I have never seen a toad in our garden, but the slugs seem to like it!!

I had an unfortunate incident with a bat in the bathroom once.

We have a Victorian sunken greenhouse with beds of earth at waist height and in years gone by when we grew things in there, I sometimes would see the earth moving (!) and a toad emerge to see what was going on, then submerge itself again. I think it liked to be buried during the day to keep cool. The first time it happened , it scared me half to death, but we got quite blasé about it in time.

Violette I know what you mean. I think they look for damp places. We once had one who lived under a damp facecloth at the end of the bath.

Do you have water nearby? It was probably migrating to the place where it finds a girlfriend or boyfriend!

Oh no ! one night in the shower I bent down to remove a bright green leaf from the shower wall ,,,only to have it leap up in the air ...terrified the life out of me ! They are really cute to look at ,,,but I prefer to see (and hear !) them outdoors .....not sure who was more horrified, him or me !

I remember taking GS for his first 'adventure' in the little stream in the woods at the back of our old house. I spent a lot of time in the same stream when I was a child. He would have been not quite four, in his Fireman Sam wellies. We waded up and down a bit and then he spotted a frog and tried to catch it. We both got very wet, but we followed the frog as it "teased" us up the stream, never going very far, but always out of reach. We gave up when the water finally came over his wellies but he was so excited, didn't want to go home, and wouldn't stop talking about it. What the frog thought about it all remains frogotten!

I love frogs! We have a pond in our garden which was there when we moved in, with lots of frogs in it. I gave our house the name "Casa Rana" (Frog House" in Spanish).Every year in around February we have a lot of romantic activity in the pond which results in lots of tadpoles. Unfortunately, we have a cat, who also loves frogs and is a bit prone to bringing them into the house as little gifts. We usually manage to rescue them and put them back in the pond, but occasionally we have one who hides so efficiently and is so traumatised that we find his poor little mummified corpse under the sofa or the fridge months later, which makes me very upset.

Sorry but I really don't like them but have occasionally had one in the kitchen. I know I'm pathetic but I have to get my neighbour to come and get it out !

Quite a large frog had a narrow escape yesterday when I was cutting the grass. I spotted it just as I was about to push the mower over it. It was reluctant to be picked up so I had to encourage it to jump away out of mowing range.

Ann - we used to have those midwife toads here but haven't seen (or heard) any recently. They make a sort of electronic beeping sound.
My favourites are the little bright green tree frogs - so cute.
I've got a photo of one somewhere, sitting on a white lily.

A very large toad used to knock on my back door every morning for the dog to go out and play...........they were mates until we moved house.

Our pond is full of toadpoles at the moment, I love having them, part of the eco system. I found a huge one under a piece of wood two days ago.

Yesterday we started up the pool with a large dose of chlore shock, two hours later I found a large toad swimming in it! I picked him out and put him in the grass, I hope he survives.

We have the midwife toads here - the males keep the eggs on their backs - fascinating. Earlier in the year we found a female stuck to a males back - she must have been laying her eggs.

We had a toad who lived in our greenhouse for many years, we knew it was the same one as it one as it only had one eye. At the moment we have about 500 Toadpoles in our pond, I think they're fascinating creatures and great at eating slugs. They can live up to 40 years old.

I am sitting here with tears of laughter streaming down my face! The frog in the coal bucket, put on the fire twice, the frog with a "sort of resigned look" on its face. Some of you really ought to be novelists such is your wonderful turn of phrase.
Years ago when we lived in Wendover, I came down the stairs and saw a large heap on the hall carpet. I thought one of the cats had done a whoopsie until it started hopping up the hall. My husband was in the RAF and on an operation so I had to deal with it. I opened the front door and used the shovel to encourage it to leave.

phoenix -