Elijah and the toad

Elijah is definately my, 'he is ALL boy' kid. He plays in the mud,if there's not mud he'll make some. He climbs anything he can find, only to jump off of it, and he brings all kinds of critters in my house. A couple of days ago, my kids and thier cousins were all playing outside in the sprinkler making mud and finding bugs, and Elijah found this big ugly toad. He brings her inside, he swore it was a girl, and is begging me to keep her. I kept telling him, no she likes it better outside. "But, mommy I love her, she's my toad, I love her, she loves me she wants to live in my room. " This went on for a good while, which ended up in tears as he set the taod free. A good 20 min later he was okay and playing again. Later on all the kids are completely filthy and need showers, so we bring them one or two at a time depending on their age to get them cleaned up. When everyone is done I go into the bathroom to see the damage, it wasn't a pretty picture, so I decided to scoop up everything and throw it into the wash, when I did a toad fell out on my foot. I was pretty sure Elijah just put her in his pocket and forgot. I made sure she was alive and calmly called Elijah to take her back outside. So then it starst all over again. "I love her she needs me, I love her, she wantsto live in my room." "no, Elijah take her outside." Which led to more crying, but he finally set her free. Little boys they are so cute!