Shaun & Toad Are Friends

Everyday at work I go walking my co-worker.  On Tuesday we were out for our walk and happened upon this little guy.  He was stuck in a round hole in the top of a manhole cover in the sidewalk in front of our bank building.  This hole was a bit larger than a quarter, and a bit smaller than this toad.

Naturally we couldn't just leave him like that so we went in and got a cup of water, a soup spoon and some napkins and tried to push him in or pull him out.  He did not budge. I worried that I was hurting his little arms when I was pulling, you can see from the picture that his arm already seemed to be somewhat atrophied.  When I poured water on him, he swallowed and opened his eyes and he was just so sad.

We tried to call building maintenence to see if they could pry open the manhole but they were busy on the roof, probably with more important things. By this time my coworkers decided that there really wasn't anything else that could be done.  So we all went back in.

I sat at my desk, and I couldn't concentrate on my work. I just kept thinking about this poor little guy. Then I got an idea. I grabbed some supplies and went back down. At first I thought he had passed on, he wasn't moving, his eyes were closed. But when I poured more water on him he swallowed and opened his eye. I took out a stick of butter that I keep up at the office for toast and I buttered up the edges of the hole. Then I locked my fingers around the wide part of his jar and I shimmied him. I shimmied and then I could see he had come out some. So then I just kept doing this until I had him all the way out to his hip joints. At that point, I dind't know what to do because of course I had no idea how to make him flex his legs so that he would go skinny enough to come out. I looked at him and he tilted his head and looked back at me. "Frog, (I know it's  a toad, but I call them all frogs) I said "Frog, I've done my part, now you have to do yours" and I tell you that frog kicked his legs out and I gave a tug and out he finally popped.

As you can see here, he was OK! he favored one leg but hopped off. I did rinse the butter off him since they absorb through their skin. I don't know, I hope he is fine. If not at least he can pass on out in the open and not stuck.  

Pretty much everyone thought I was nuts to keep trying. They all said I needed to just let it go. But I couldn't just leave a living creature like that. I'm so glad I went back down and tried again!