I suppose when one thinks of having an encounter with an animal, a toad as the animal doesn’t really come to mind, but one of my more memorable animal encounters was with just that - a toad. I never checked to find out what kind of toad he was, at the time it didn't seem to be that important - nor did I care where he came from. All I remember is; one night he was just there.

It was late in the evening and I had opened the door to the back porch to see if the cat wanted in and there, down in the corner of the door, sat the hugest toad I had ever seen. We had toads of all sizes around the house – from the teeniest tiniest to good 2-3 inchers, but this toad was even larger than that! His sheer volume had me leaning toward naming him Jabba da Toad, but I figured that was way too cliché and he ended up being called Moe. Moe the Toad.

The combination of having kids and an oddity on your porch made it inevitable – Moe was soon was the talk of the neighborhood. Adults and kids alike came to see him. When I say he was large, I mean he was large! I remember one night coming in late from a softball game; one of the kids still carried a softball and he said, “Look, Mom! Moe’s as big as the ball!” He sat the ball down beside the toad and sure enough, Moe was every bit as big as that ball….and as wide! Wide and round – that was our Moe!!

Every night, for several months that summer and into the fall, Moe showed up at that spot at the back door. He sat silently – in all his roundness, though summer thunderstorms and dry spells. Sometimes late at night, after the kids were asleep, I would go out and sit on the step beside him. It didn’t take long for me to realize his attraction to the place – it was quiet and peaceful and in that span of time – all was right with the world.

Then one night, he was gone; as quickly and quietly as he had come, gone. The nip of a cold and unforgiving winter was in the air and I assume he retreated deep within his home – wherever that was – to wait for a new spring. I never saw him after that, but I will always remember him and those special times we shared on the back porch - watching the fireflies fly, listening to the peepers peep, and hoping to catch the slightest hint of a breeze on a hot summer night.

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Winning Essay - Backyard Gardener by Melissa Starbuck

2nd Place - Trust Me by Jeanne Kern of Nebraska