Big Ben

This is the story of How I caught Big Ben. He is my Southern toad, that I haave had for nearly 13 years. No names will be used.

Every summer when I was little (below the age of 11) my family would take a vacation to Virginia Beach. It's not that nice of a beach but when you are cheap it will do. We would often go around the 4th of july so we could sit on the balcony and watch the fireworks over the ocean. It was always a beautiful time. The summer of my 8th year we visited my second cousin and her family. They lived near the beach. It was fun to be with my cousins for a time, but it soon got boring. To pass the time I went outside to see what creatures I could find. My cousin followed (to my dismay).

When we came to the front yard we saw another kid across the street. My cousin introduced me to him, and he wondered what I was doing. I proceeded to explain my interest in nature and that I was just looking around for something interesting. He offered to take me to a pond near his house, so we went. As I looked around the water I saw no movement. The pond looked dead. Then to my surprise I saw him jump. He caught a small frog and placed it in a jar. I looked at it and jealosy overcame me. I wanted to catch something, but there was nothing else, so we walked back to my cousin's house where the subject of bicycles came up.

I couldn't ride a bicycle and so he offered to teach me, but I would have no part of it. I would not let the one who out-frogged me show his superiority once more by teaching me, no I wouldn't. Besides it was getting dark and I wasn't going to learn to ride a bike in the dark. I left and went inside for dinner- mmmm ribs, if my memory serves me correctly. After dinner, still unsatisfied that I had caught nothing that day, I went outside and started looking around for some nocturnal specimens. I started rummaging around some old wooden boards when I saw something move. I jumped back. At first I thought it was a rat. I don't know why, but then I noticed that the shadowy creature hopped. I grapped at the dark figure and felt bumps- A toad! I had caught one other toad in my life at this point, and it was nowhere near as big as this one.

I ran inside hands covered with toad pee. My mother screamed, my father said "what the hell is that", My cousin said "oooo your gonna get warts". I placed the toad into my critter keeper and looked at him with pride. I had caugh something! I went outside and saw the kid across the street. I showed him my find and smuggly remarked "Mine's bigger than yours". He said he didn't care, and he probably didn't, and neither did I really. I was just glad I caught something. When we left my cousins I bought the toad with me. I hid his cage under my coat since I was worried about the hotel we were staying at's "no pet policy". On the trip back home to NY, the toad that would one day be called Big Ben road in the back seat with me. If you had told me then that 12 1/2 yrs later I would still have this toad I would have called you crazy and said "silly you, toads don't live that long!" Well they can.

When I left for college I gave all my pets away. all except Ben. For this reason I call him the Alpha and Omega. Of my initial group of pets he was the first, and the last.