Caught red-handed

So there is a small, adorable black and white kitty that hangs around outside the house, and I’ve begun feeding her. I couldn’t not feed her, as when I finally petted her, I realized she was literally starving (her sides were concave, and she was clearly severely underweight). So I started giving her little bowls of food morning & night, and she’s been ever so grateful. She’s sooo sweet & loving: purrs very loudly, rubs on ankles, rolls over for belly rubs, wants to jump in your lap to purr & nuzzle some more. What a sweet little girl.

I’d noticed that sometimes she didn’t eat all of the food, and I’d seen a couple of other cats hanging around. To be expected, of course. So no worries, as long as she’s getting decent food intake, if other cats grab some bites, that’s ok.

Then the other morning, I’d put food out for her, and before I left for work, she came running to the gate for some love before I left. I thought hmmm, she’s done already? Then I realized another cat must have bogarted the food. So I went in the gate & looked down the house toward where the food was, and could see…the food dish tipped over, and something seemed to be there eating it. But it didn’t look like any neighborhood cats. WTF? I went to investigate.

It was THE TOAD!

The big, gi-normous, plate-sized toad! I realized that the pics I posted recently of the “big toad” are pics of a big toad, but that’s not THE Big Toad…the Big Mama toad…the toad that’s BIGGER than my hand. But it was Big Mama who was in the cat food dish, chowing down.

Once she realized I was standing there, silently laughing at the sight and wishing to Goddess I had a camera on me, she backed out of the dish and hopped back into the bushes. But she didn’t go far in. She wanted the rest of the food.

Seeing that toad devouring the cat food, from half inside the dish, was one of the funniest things I’ve seen in awhile. I now feed the little cat on top of a table, but always toss some bits of food into the bushes, so Big Mama can have a snack. :-)