Mild Weather brings out the Toads & Snakes

After our mild winter, the insects seem to be thriving this spring. Thriving insects mean plenty of insect eating amphibians, which in turn mean lots of reptiles that feed on amphibians. Yes, I'm talking about a spring filled with toads and snakes! I can't tell you how many facebook and twitter posts I've read lately about the abundance of toads. I personally get a kick out of watching the toads. They are cute little guys! Snakes on the other hand, make my skin crawl! This past weekend we had a viewer named Diane Jackson send in some video of tiny toads covering her driveway in Oklahoma City. It is incredible video and it left me thinking just how entertained my dogs would have been if they had seen all those hoppers!

http://pics.news9.com/Media/View/2353221

As a dog owner I've been getting tons of "presents" lately. There's something that fills my dogs' hearts with joy when they bring me something they've found trespassing in our yard. My husband and I have two dogs, a boxer (Koda) and a lab (Hallie). It seems like not a night has gone by the past month that they haven't come to me, tails wagging profusely, to show me what they've caught. If you're a dog owner, you know the look! Now 99% of the time, their gift is a fat toad. I thank them and put the poor thing over the fence so it can hop off to safety. Sometimes though, they bring me my arch enemy; a SNAKE! Just like in the picture to the right. Those things always call for reinforcements; my husband! I don't know what it is about things that hop, or things that crawl, that can keep a dog entertained for hours on end. All I know is I find myself having to buy fewer toys this spring.

The mild winter, nice as it was to some folks, means all kinds of bugs are out in full force. Ticks are also expected thrive this year, although I personally haven't seen many yet. We have had mild, mostly quiet conditions this month and we are forecasting that same trend to continue through the end of this week. Check out Matt Mahler's blog on our mild May http://www.news9.com/story/18384520/the-quiet-month-of-may. No matter what the weather has in store this summer, I'm thinking Christmas in July will take on a whole new meaning at the Swope house. I can only imagine the gifts my dogs will be bringing me over the next few months as nature continues to flourish.