Toad

The kids and I were spending the afternoon in the backyard while Daddy mowed the lawn.  He had brought the kids a toad that had hopped in front of the mower.  Edee loves toads.  Some tolerate her better than others; this one was avidly trying to escape her tight little grasp.  Once she brought it over to me, showing me that it was "sleeping" on it's back.  My stomach churned and I declared him dead... just as he popped up and hopped away.  He didn't manage to get that far from Edee, unfortunately for him.  Clever escape tactic though.

When Daddy was done, he parked the lawn mower and came over to check on everybody.

Daddy:  How's it going with the toad, Edee?
Edee:  Good.  I'm taining it.
Daddy:  Training it to do what?
Edee:  To not hop away fom me.

Training continued and I got distracted with uploading pictures on my phone.  Chicken also decided he wanted up on the mower so I humored him and helped him into the seat for a pretend ride.  Edee comes up to us holding out her hand.

Edee:  Yook!  I foun a catapiyahr!
Me:  Nice.  Hey....where is your toad??
Edee:  I put it in da dirt, an put da dirt ovah it so dat it woudant hop away anymore.
Me:  Ack!!  You buried your toad!!!!???
Edee:  No no no.  It wadant dead.
Me:  You buried it alive!!  It might be dead now!  Show me where you buried it.

The toad was quickly excavated.  It had been placed in a shallow pit and completely covered in damp earth.

Me:  Oh no....Edee....it's.....it's alive?  Oh my gosh.   Don't you ever do that again.

Training was over at that point. Daddy returned the toad to live a free, happy life...though I'm sure he's scarred for the remainder of it.