An unwanted lodger

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I recently received some very good advice when reading through my notifications. Basically you were suggesting that I took a little exercise from time to time for the sake of my health. So today I decided to take the advice and the exercise and go out and check my little nursery of Oleander cuttings in the garden. As you can see from the photo they are in pots in a shaded spot until they grow strong enough to face planting in the garden. I noticed one of them (second on the right) was leaning sideways and on closer inspection there were some loose roots on the surface. I immediately suspected that the cats had got curious and done a little excavation. I pushed the soil down, straightened the plant and got a stick to support it. Although the soil was soft and wet the stick would not go down. Then I noticed that there was a large stone in the pot which I had not seen before. I tried to poke it out but it would not move. Then to my surprise the stone began to rise from the mud and I saw a red eye looking at me, it was a toad and it was a big one, at least the size of a man’s fist. It began to move very slowly, its leg reached my thumb, yuk, they are ugly things. So I decided the only way to get it out was to sacrifice the plant and turn the pot upside down. This worked and the toad was deposited on the ground. I took the plant away, which fortunately had roots that went deeper than the frog, and replaced the soil. When I returned the toad had gone - fortunately before the dogs could discover it. If they had attempted to eat it I cannot begin to imagine the horror of what would have followed....