I love critters and for the record, spiders are not critters. We regularly catch and admire many reptiles and amphibians in our yard, take a picture or two and release the victim of our fascination back into the wild or an area more habitable to them.
We have a small water garden pond between our house and our garage. In our pond, we have our 15 cent goldfish that grow quite large and a handful of frogs. Some of the frogs were transplants from the culverts in our ditch and one particularly large leopard frog that has been in the area for the last handful of years. It is neat to go out and see the frogs sitting on lilly pads or the edge of the pond.
So, yesterday I was out going from the top of the garage back down to the bottom past the pond and I spotted a rather large garter snake trying to hide under one of the pots beside the pond. I picked it up and took it to show my wife through the kitchen window. She was amazed at how big it was for a garter snake. I also noticed quite a bulge in where it had eaten something recently. As I held it, it started wiggling and the former meal came spewing out of it's mouth and onto the ground where it hopped quickly away. The darn snake had eaten on of OUR frogs...
The snake was relocated with a stern warning and the frog, with no obvious ill effects rather than being majorly traumatized was returned to the pond.
I know... Circle of Life and all that... But it was OUR frog...
Just a simple story for the day.