1ST HORNY TOAD OF THE SEASON........!!!

I've always loved these little guys.  I spent a lot of time when I was a kid, catching them & finding an ant hill for them.  I'm sure they could find ants to eat without my interference, but for some reason I thought it was necessary to "help" them.

We usually only see a few each year, when I was a kid in west Texas they were everywhere.  I would imagine a lot of donkey feet pounding the ground isn't conducive to having horny toads habituating with them.  Very rarely see any snakes either.  

The toads here are different than the ones in Odessa, Texas, ours were more sandy colored rather than an off gray color, & had spines on their backs.  These have spines all around their head, but their body is relatively smooth. 

Everything is going pretty good right now for a change.......well except for cute little Wister & his favorite past time.......removing fly masks from anyone that will hold still.  His poor long suffering Mom, Ruthie pays the price when they are in their pen to eat.  She can't get away from him, & the next thing we hear is the sound of velcro  being ripped apart.

BlackJack has been coming in without a mask for the last few days.  Really didn't think Wister was that brave, but you never know.  The mesquite beans are getting ripe & the donkeys know it.  John caught BJ, sticking his head into the middle of mesquite trees, & shaking the trunk to make the beans fall.  Our thought is, when he pulls his head back, chances are the masks are getting caught & off they come.  I think there's 3 of his out there right now.  

We've already started cutting down on hay because of the beans & watching poo piles with a judgemental eye.  Coquette, Penny, Frijolita & Daisy have already went on short rations.  We have to be careful not to cut too much hay, because they need to eat hay to make sure the beans don't go thru their system in a ball.  The local rancher said he has found cow skeletons with a ball of beans as big as a basketball,  they couldn't pass.  I hope we don't have to put any of them in pens until the beans are gone.  Poor little Buddy usually has to spend the summer in the pens, letting us know how mistreated he is every time he sees us go out of the house.