Found...

Yesterday afternoon my daughter walked out the door to check the mail at the end of the street. She ran back into the house and exclaimed that her brothers HAD to see something outside in the road. I was fairly immune to the excitement of grabbing shoes and rushing outside to see what amazing new phenomenon Ashley had discovered. After a few moments one of my children came in and requested they borrow my phone for the purpose of taking a picture of the frog they had discovered so they could show it to me and I could tell them if it was poisonous.

[Time froze for a brief moment as I considered the implications of this... do my children believe I am so lazy and disinterested that I will refuse to walk outside and look at something they are interested in with my own eyes? Really? How has this happened? What kind of awful parent am I? I made a mental note to evaluate and increase my enthusiasm levels.]

Responding that I was quite sure there were no poisonous frogs in Utah, I got up to investigate the curious amphibian. What I saw did in fact surprise me. The frog was green with black spots and an orange underbelly. (and stylish orange toe pads that look like polished fingernails) It was similar to something you would find in a bag of plastic toy frogs.

"I don't think this frog is a native," I surmised to the children, "I think someone has an escaped pet. Let's catch it and figure out what it is and where it might have come from."

The children were surprisingly still quite hesitant to touch the frog. Everyone knows colorful frogs are poisonous. I responded with inarguable reason--then don't lick it. Finally, I just caught the little beast myself--whereupon everyone else immediately wanted to hold it. We took the critter inside and put it in an empty ice cream bucket. It jumped out; eliciting shrieks of terror from my 13-year old. We found a larger container and then found a lid when we discovered it could climb the sides.

After consulting the all-knowing internet, I have come to the determination that what we have is in fact not a frog at all, but a Fire-Bellied Toad. Native to Asia, and considered a good beginner's pet. Supposedly they have "heart-shaped" pupils (I can't tell) and short tongues. I had the Relief Society notify the neighborhood that we have discovered what may be a lost pet. My children are hoping that no one claims it and I will consent to keep it. I'm not sure how I feel about it, but I have already considered possible names and that is never a good sign.

Below: My picture is fuzzy because it was taken from the outside of the plastic box he is confined to, but it looks like a match to me... Picture to the left courtesy of http://www.pet-frog.com/buy-fire-bellied-toad.html