A picture of part of the courtyard (before the arrival of the toad house)
The townhome I lived in before my current home had a beautiful outdoor courtyard surrounded by a high brick wall to the west and then a wooden fence on the opposite wall. I had planted all kinds of perennials in it, plus lots of annuals every summer. It was a pleasant place to sit, read, cook out or entertain, and for Ian and Elyse, to play or just hang out and talk.
I was reading an issue of Martha Stewart Living one Saturday afternoon in the courtyard – it was an article about toads and toad houses. Basically it said that if you put a toad house in your garden, pest-eating toads would show up and find it – and then hang out in your garden. So I bought a really cute toad house online (total price $35.00) and put it in a nice shady place under a tree in the courtyard. However, after several days, no toads showed up.
The next weekend Ian and Elyse were over and Ian said, “I know let’s go to the park and find some toads! We can catch them, then bring them back to the toad house and they will have a really cool new home.” He felt bad that no toads had showed up for my toad house and saw it as a big adventure/quest to go out and find at least one toad!
Ian was about 11 at the time and Elyse about 7. Not having anything available to catch toads with, we went to the store and purchased a small net and a small plastic bucket with a lid (total price $16.50). We grabbed some snacks (total price $20.00) and drove over to Antioch park, a very pretty and fun area near my townhome. While we had a great time in the park as usual, we searched the pond area for several hours but found no toads.
Ian reading Harry Potter in the courtyard patio; Elyse looking at a book on flowers
Ian was really disappointed that he couldn’t find me a toad for my toad house, so I said we’d go to a pet store and see if they had any. Elyse had given up on the toad hunt and stayed home with Grandma, but Ian and I drove to the nearest pet store.
The only person in the store was the cashier, who was a grumpy middle-aged guy with a scrappy beard. I asked him if he had any toads and he responded, “why, what are you going to do with one?” I thought this was a very curious question, and really none of his business. Did he think we were going to use it to cast a spell on someone or something? But he looked at me and said, “we’re all out of toads, go to Antioch park.”
Once again, we were disappointed about not finding a toad, but Ian was still convinced that we could find one someplace. Then he said, “I know the best place to go, it’s the pet store by our house, they will have one!” This store was about a half hour away, but I thought it was a brilliant idea, surely they would have toads as it was an exotic pet store and they had all sorts of fish and reptiles. So we rushed over there because it was going to close in an hour at 6PM (we had been toad hunting all day).
Ian at Antioch Park, looking a little tired and disappointed after hunting for toads
Sure enough, they actually had a toad/frog section. I asked the young clerk if they had any simple pond toads, and he said no, but they had all kinds of exotic toads from all over the world. (I guess there are people who keep amphibians as pets.) They were called everything from the Granulated Toad to the Great Plains Toad, from the Fire Belly Toad to the Egyptian Green Toad, ranging in price from $12.00 to $300 each!
Being an 11-year old boy (and at the time, reading the Harry Potter books), Ian was fascinated by all the toads and was so excited that we had found one, especially one that would be so special! Instinctively, I knew these were probably not the kind of toads you throw out in your courtyard to live in the toad house, but I didn’t want to disappoint him. So I rationalized that a toad is a toad, and that whichever one we would buy would stay put. (But the prices of these toads did give me cause to pause!)
So we walked out of the store with a Chilean Christmas Toad – he was sort of skinny for a toad, was blackish green and had red markings all over him (total price $29.99!). He was the second least expensive toad but Ian knew we had found the most perfect toad. He named him Trevor – after Neville’s toad (in Harry Potter) who was escaping all the time and made frequent attempts at freedom.
We brought Trevor home and went out to the courtyard, with Ian peeking in Trevor’s box all the way home to see how he was doing. Ian opened up Trevor’s box and gently scooted him towards the toad house. Dutifully, Trevor jumped over to the toad house and sat in front of the door of it for several minutes. He seemed to be looking at us, almost inspecting us, but didn’t look afraid. He turned around and went inside the toad house, just like that! Martha Stewart was right!
Ian sat outside for several hours until sundown (by this time it was 9PM on a Saturday night), watching what Trevor would do. Sometimes Trevor would pop out of his little toad house and roam around a bit, but Ian always coaxed him back over to the house. Finally, Ian came inside, and he was confident that Trevor would be there in the morning.
Unfortunately, he was not. Ian had stayed the night and the first thing the next morning went out to check on Trevor. Trevor was gone. Ian was sad. I felt foolish for spending by this time $81.49 on the toad house, the search for a toad and for Trevor, and the little thing just hopped away. And now I had a sad little nephew.
Trevor's toad house in its new location with its new toads
Ian convinced himself that Trevor escaped while he could (unlike in the book, Neville’s Trevor never managed to escape) and was on his way back to Chile. Ian reasoned that Trevor would find a stream to follow and would just keep swimming and hopping South until he got to Valparaíso or someplace near there. I secretly hoped Trevor would come back now and then and do his job at pest control. But we never saw him again.
So while I bought an expensive toad that was with us for less than 24 hours, the whole toad hunting adventure that day with Ian was priceless. And like Harry Potter, and the lore around toads, perhaps Trevor was a very magical toad, and he was able somehow to make it home to Chile.
In 2003, the toad house made the move to my new house, and it sits nestled among the hostas in the shade under the deck in the back. I often see tiny little toads coming and going in and around it, and when I do, I’m reminded of Trevor and that magical day toad hunting with Ian.
The Do's & Don'ts of Aunting 
I loved the story of your search for a toad. And, the adorable toad house.