Toads in the House...Paranormal Hilarity Ensues

Last summer, my best friend had come over to visit. He, my nephew, and I were sitting in the family room watching TV. My friend got up to get something to drink from the kitchen, and as he passed my patio door, he nonchalantly said, "You've got a big a** frog in your house." He calmly kept walking, as if this sort of thing was normal, hehe. Actually, this kinda thing is pretty typical, as you never know what to expect in my crazy house.

It was really one of those you had to be there moments, but my nephew and I were guffawing at the choice of words, but also the fact that he just kept walking, making no mention of removing the offending amphibian.

I got up to check it out, and it was actually a HUGE toad, just sitting there, looking out the patio door. I have no idea how it got in the house without my dogs eating it. My yellow lab thinks frogs and toads are playthings--she likes to throw them up in the air and catch them.

I got a towel and picked the toad up gently. I put it out front so the dogs couldn't get to it. The very next day, two of the dogs cornered something on the porch. When I went out to check, there was another toad, smaller in size, hiding under the riding lawnmower. It was also scooped up and taken out front.

While the rest of the house thought the chain of events were highly entertaining, my mom was convinced there was some supernatural meaning behind it all. Consulting a few of my paranormal encyclopedias I managed to learn:

"In occult lore, the toad is said to be psychically sensitive and can detect the presence of a ghost. Its presence in a house or garden is considered to be protective against the supernatural.

Folklore also holds that toads are favorite familiars of witches, and that witches shape-shift into toads. In certain areas, toads are death omens of sorts. In part of England, it was once a practice to capture a toad, break its hind legs, sew it up in a bag live and tie the bag around the neck of a patient. The toad's survival or death would foretell the fate of the patient. "
-The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits, Rosemary Guiley

I guess it is pertinent to note that my home has been plagued by paranormal activity for years, and several independent visitors who claim to have had psychic abilities have believed there is a portal of sorts here.  One psychic who reads both my mom and myself fairly regularly has twice stated information about "guardians" who have been sent here to protect us.  The first such guardian was our cat, Ambrosis.  Secondly, this psychic told us that when my son, Luke, was born, my grandfather "moved in" to watch over him.  This psychic never said exactly WHAT we were being protected against, but I always felt that perhaps it was from an attack of a spiritual or otherworldly type due to the problems we've had here in the past.  Was this toad simply another protector against these unseen forces?

It's also interesting to note that the toad was looking out the back door into our backyard.  While many would just say it was trying to figure out how to get BACK outside, there might be a more paranormal answer for his gaze.  As seen in the above-mentioned text from Rosemary Guiley, toads can detect the presence of a ghost.  While there is no debate that we've had plenty of weird experiences inside, the backyard is also a hotbed of shadow person sightings...and is the location where a man passed away from a massive heart attack---the same man who we've seen inside many times!