Hoppy toad

Last night I sat in the country club parking lot again, waiting for the lad to get out of work. Just me and a little brown hoppy toad. I’d been sitting in the car for only a few minutes when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. A little toad, about two inches long, hopped into the street lamp’s circle of light, right beside my car. I watched him for the longest time. He never moved. He sat absolutely motionless for a good fifteen minutes. I wondered what in the world he was doing.

And then...a tiny white moth landed on the pavement just a couple of inches in front of the hoppy toad’s mouth. I could instantly tell that he saw it. His entire body went rigid. Suddenly his back legs began quivering. Violently. Like a cat quivers before a pounce. He leaped and snapped the moth up. It was gone in a flash. The moth never saw it coming.

Hoppy toad went motionless again and stayed that way until the lad came out. I’d wondered what hoppy toad was doing and it was all explained in an instant. He was hunting. Somehow he’d discovered that the circle of light under the street lamp drew bugs. All he had to do was sit in it and wait.