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Where We Left Off:
Last week, we celebrated the 10th Adoptiversary of Burton Guster Nabu and asked how you would celebrate 10 years of partnership.
Ana-kyranina:
It might be frosty or too hot by the time you read this. Our New Jersey Spring is mercurial. People are trying to predict it, but I’m pretty sure we should leave it up to Staten Island Chuck. A couple of hot days (too hot for me) might have awakened the creatures who hide during winter. One such creature presented itself on Friday the 13th!
Toad or Topielec?
Gus hopped out the back door ignoring something that made me pause. At the bottom of the stairs, leaves are usually trapped so seeing earth-toned masses there is not surprising. However, in the past, we’ve found amphibians there, usually toads. I let Gus go ahead while I decided to check the leaves at the space between the step and the door. Sure enough, there was a body of something.
I figured it was most likely another toad, but could not tell if it was alive. As I stated, the temps change dramatically from morning to night. This creature might have been trying to avoid the brutal wind which snapped even more trees. If so, it chose a decent hiding place.
“Gus, can you come look at this?” The cat detective didn’t exactly ignore my request, but he hadn’t been outside in fresh air for weeks. All he wanted to do was roam and look for signs for spring, mainly fresh bristle grass he loves to eat.
I talked to the toad creature to see if it was alive and try to get some information from it. I placed it in a sun patch on dirt against the house. I never had a pet toad. I had no idea how to take care of them. Other times I found a toad or creature resembling one, I placed it with a bowl of water in Gnome Grove. Fortunately, the toad responded to me!
A note on the terms: I don’t speak Polish, Ukrainian, or Czech which makes researching amphibious Old World creatures pretty difficult. You’ll have to forgive if mix up singular and plurals or masculine and feminine which are grammar rules of those other languages. The names we’ve used for these creatures so far have been vodyanoy, vodník, vodníci. The Polish name is topielec or utopielec.
This toad creature was alive! She was trying to find shelter. One of my assumptions was correct. Gus finished his preliminary scouting and came over to me when I put the toad on the ground. He began to question her and noted that her speech was extremely slow as were her movements.
Frog, Friend or Foe?
Gus examined the creature and requested that I bring Oliver over in his buggy to join the meeting. I walked away to unload some of the seeds and snacks weighing down my bag. When I returned, the two cat detectives had gotten a little more information.
The creature said, “Not frog.” I imagine this conversation between Ollie, Gus, and the toad resembled talking to Tolkien Ents. I did not find the Ent conversations riveting despite them being exceptionally heroic. Therefore, I won’t drag on the interview.
We know there’s a difference between frogs and toads. What we were looking for after that was whether this toad was a mundane toad or a maging (our broad term for magical beings, fae, cryptids, etc.).
Oliver said, “She has bufotoxin, Gus. Don’t bite her.” Oliver had not forgotten that both of them had incidents with biting creatures with bufotoxin defenses. They were lucky that the reaction was considerably more mild than other animal or plant toxins.
Even the mundane realm American toads have the ability to cloak or camouflage themselves by changing colors, like a chameleon. This is shown in my video of transporting the toad from the nook at the bottom of the stairs to the dirt. The creature was nearly invisible to the human eye.
Identification
Gus and Oliver learned all the basic information about our subject. They were correct to question whether she was mundane or maging. It turned out, she was special. Though she didn’t use the species name vodníci, instead preferring the Polish version, topielec. She was more afraid of us than we were of her.
Species: Anaxyrus daemonia (aka topielec)
Name: Ana-kyra
Approximate age: adult female of breeding age
Threat level: 3 out of 5 (don’t get on her bad side; she’s typically neutral)
Case Summary:
We discovered a creature wedged against a step in a nook that protected her from the chill and wind. Gus and Oliver gave interviewed her and gave her a cursory, hands-off examination. They deemed that she was not a threat. We relocated her to a patch of dirt in the sun on a day when the wind wasn’t terrible. We learned that this amphibious creature presented itself in the form of an American toad which it could take whenever it wanted. She was actually a type of maging Anaxyrus daemonia (aka topielec), a water creature some consider a demon because this species will kill others, including humans, if driven to it. They take revenge seriously. Her name was Ana-kyra and hopefully, she will live a prosperous and happy life wherever she decides to settle down.
Case Status: Closed
