Toads/Frogs and a Crab

According to Angela, there are no toads, because all toads are really frogs. Well, I don't know how true that statement is (from a strictly scientific point of view, probably not very) but whatever you call that amphibian that starts out as a tadpole and then grows up to make some raucous (sp?) noise, that is what I found today in abundance. In fact, there's a bunch of them croaking away outside my window right now.
We've been seeing frogs/toads on the road for several days now. It's so wet down here that they just thrive (plus there're plenty of bugs to snap up with sticky tounges. Mosquitoes at least 2.5 cm long.) So this evening, in a pleasant little rainstorm (as opposed to the lightening and thundering we had last night) I decided to go out and catch some. Yes, I went frog-hunting. And great fun it was, too!
I caught four frogs, three of the same species and one little one that could hop further than all the rest put together (several of this variety got away from me, on account of their hopping so fast and far. I'm sure anyone watching me chase the little buggers would have been greatly amused ;) ). I put them all in a bucket together, one that we had around for groceries, and that was, well... maybe not the best of ideas. Interesting, for sure. Let's just say that I witnessed the forming of a few future frog/toad families. (Actually, with frogs and toads, the process is not that interesting. The female secretes the eggs, and all the male does is sort of crawl over her back and release sperm over the eggs. Woohoo for AP Bio... stuff you're not sure you ever wanted to know!) Anyway. So then I was foraging out into the rain again (beautiful, soft almost-warm rain) for my last frog, when what should I discover, but a crab! A gen-u-wine crab, about 4 cm long! Man, that thing was fun. It didn't like me much though. It sort of reminded me of a martial arts combatant, you know? Arms up, and scuttling sideways, and very defensive. Only in this case of course, it was claw up. The claw was almost as big as its entire body! Simply amazing... oh, and do you know what else? (Annalisa, this reminded me of you) It's shell was purple!
Oh, and another thing about the frogs. Three of them could have cared less whether I talked or not. They were just sort of... catatonic. But the last frog I got in there (I think it was the male, because it promptly started crawling over all the other frogs) listened to my voice and followed it. No joke. I stood on all different sides of the bucket (it has a pretty wide bottom, and high sides) and talked, just to make sure. I swear that toad looked at me and followed the vibrations of my voice. Must have been the right frequency or something.
So yeah, that was my day :). That and sorting scads of shells picked up from the beach.
Good night all! and a wonderful Monday to you.