A Good Day to Hibernate

Animals who hibernate have the right idea about how to pass cold, cloudy, blah days of winter. A toad once lived in the terrarium in my kindergarten room. Someone found this particular toad one fall, captured the hapless little fellow and brought him to me. The children and I put dirt in a large glass container, stuck in a few sticks and grass and such to make him feel at home, a container of water, in case he got thirsty, put in a few tasty flies and small bits of hamburger, and enjoyed having an amphibian in our classroom.

Sad to say, when I closed my doors for a two-week Christmas vacation, my thoughts were on many things but the toad was not among them. I forgot to leave out water and food. I forgot the toad. When classes resumed in January, I glanced around my room and saw the terrarium. Guilt hit me full-force. The toad! Oh, the poor little fellow, alone in the cold, empty room with no food or water for two whole weeks. Cautiously, I tiptoed to look into his glass prison. Only the top of his brown head protruded above the dirt. The rest of him was buried. Gently, I lifted him out. He had shrunk! He was gray and shriveled and wrinkled.  He looked lifeless and his water dish was dry.

Feeling remorseful, I poured water into the container, put the toad down beside it and wondered how I was going to break the news to my kindergarteners. Then, fickle person that I am, I got busy with the day and, once again, forgot the toad. A few hours later, I remembered and glanced over at the glass cage. There, sitting in his water dish, was Toad, nicely plumped out and seemingly quite pleased with life. It looked to me as if he had soaked up the water through his wrinkled skin and once again was the fat fellow I used to know. So, I suppose he had hibernated and hadn’t needed food or water for a couple of weeks.

I don’t remember the toad’s fate after that but I hope he had a happy life. Toads, if they don’t meet with disaster, can live for a long time. I doubt that he is still hopping around after this many years, but maybe he has descendants. Is there a Toad Family tale about great-great-ever-so-great grandfather Toad who had a narrow escape in a kindergarten room? Could be.