A Typical Boy and his Bugs

Levi likes to play with bugs. It doesn't matter if they are crawling, flying or hopping. Most of the time Mom is pretty tolerate of his "hobby" but the day he found a spider that was the size of a June bug, Mom drew the line. She whacked it with the garden hose and was horrified to see dozens of baby spiders disembark from its mother's body, trying to escape the carnage of her impending death. Levi saw them, too, but Mom scooped him up, threw him in the garage and grabbed a can of Raid. Unfortunately, too many babies probably got away to grow up and become Levi's future toys. He really does cause Mom a lot of work. She was afraid Levi would lick the Raid on the deck so she ended up scrubbing it down. And all this was supposed to be a quick potty break for my brother.

Levi has a toad in the dog yard. Cute as a button and the size of quarter, Levi was nudging it with his nose the first afternoon Mom saw the little brown baby. She grabbed Levi by the collar while the toad hopped to safety. That night Miss. Toad was back again but that time she was too far from a safe haven and Mom had quite a time keeping a flashlight on the toad and holding Levi back while she wrangled Miss. Toad to a different corner of the dog yard where she could find a hiding place.

In the morning Mom moved the toad house that was in the front yard to the dog yard in hopes that the baby toad would move in. The toad house has a solar roof that at night is supposed to attract bugs for toads to eat. In theory, Mom is going to entice the baby to follow the toad house right out of the dog yard. She's planning to move it a couple of feet each day. Want to place a bet on whether or not it works before Levi eats the baby toad? This photo is of Levi checking out the house for the first time.

Every night Levi makes Mom take him in and out in and out. He's fascinated with the moths that hang around the deck light. If he could he'd crawl right up the siding on the house trying to catch them. She tried turning the light off and taking him to the dog yard using just a flashlight but bugs are attracted to the light coming out from the kitchen window so Levi jumps on the screens trying to catch them. That could get expensive.

Like I said, Levi is a typical boy when it comes to creepy, crawly things and I haven't even told you about the time he found a cricket in the garage. To make a long story short the chirping has stopped and Levi got his schnauzer beard decorated with garage yucky-do's in the process. ©


P.S. If anyone is a fan of the TV show, Greatest American Dog, you might like their fan website. They have a message board and you can watch back episodes if you miss any of them. It also has profiles of all the dogs and their owners, the judges and the host.

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