My hands are cupped together, craddling Bumpy gently as she attempts to digest an unruly earthworm. I know it's unruly because every now and again, one end of the worm pops out of Bumpy's mouth, eager to escape, but Bumpy's fat, bubblegum tongue pulls it back inside effortlessly. I hold her up to my face, admiring her toady features. I drop back to sit on my heels with her like that, bulbous and gasping* in my hands.
As I draw her even closer to my eyes, I watch as her tiny, teardrop-shaped nostrils flare and relax at the tip of her nose. Rough, dry, her back covered in warts*. What's not to love? Her stubby front legs concave back against her body, toes protruding at odd angles, while, from a frontal view, her enormous gut practically swallows any sign of her back legs. No matter how homely this toad may seem at first, one special feature keeps me in awe.
Bumpy has beautiful eyes. Pitch black pupils sit horizontally, surrounded by brilliant, liquid gold. In the sunlight, it glints like gold leaf on a painstakingly prepared wedding cake, speckled throughout the iris and lining the pupil. We spend a few quiet moments staring at each other--toad and human--before I put her back in her temporary home.
*"Gasping?" you might ask. I use that word in particular because the flap of skin under a toad or frogs chin flutters constantly, soundlessly, to help them take in air since toads don't have a diaphragm to help pull air into their lungs.
*The warts on a toad contain a milky, poisonous substance used for defense, excreting when the toad feels the threat of immediate danger. It's not harmful if touched, but if swallowed or transferred to the eyes or other mucous membranes, it can make some animals very sick, including dogs.
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