Neville, the toad scientist

Neville didn’t just exist in the world letting things pass him by. He studied his world and was continually curious. Once he learned that he could look up and ask to see and sniff things closer, his world exploded. One of the things he most loved to study is toads.

When he discovered a toad, he’d not only study it but engage with it. Neville would boop the toad with his nose repeatedly. He would do it until the toad jumped then he’d stare at the toad and I swear to you, he would mimic that toad’s jump. He would also do his errrr noise and escalate to barking to help encourage the toad to hop. He did this again and again with each new toad he encountered. He absolutely loved this activity.

We would spend large chunks of time playing this game. Don’t worry, I never let the toad get hurt, just a temporary little science experiment for my beautiful fur baby. When I first saw Neville mimic the toad’s jump, I was sure I was seeing things or it was just a coincidence, but Neville didn’t jump like that normally. And after a few of these encounters where he repeated this little toad jump, I knew he really was mimicking the toad. Neville is so incredibly smart and attuned to his world.