Tiny toad.
Miss Lyra with Tiny Toad.
That girl is absolutely fearless and non-squeamish when it comes to getting dirty and handling critters. Her brother is a bit more cautious in that respect. He would have looked at the toad, but he wouldn’t have touched it. And he wouldn’t have come running, toad between thumb and forefinger, and said, “Look what I found outside, Daddy!”
My little girl…the headstrong princess who takes a sword to the dragon to defend her play castle, and who comes inside after a day of play with scuffed knees and dirty fingernails.
In my youth, my band used to practice in my room (the former family room in the basement). The windows were in wells, and when we practiced we’d get (in the summer, anyway) five or six toads lined up on the window ledges, staring in with solemn toad faces. We drew bigger crowds at practice than at gigs, actually.
I’m over thirty and I still react almost exactly like that when I find a bitty critter poking around.
Those little guys are a lot of fun!
BTW did it take a huge leak on your hand when you picked it up?
That’s a teaching moment! Did you know that since toads are terrestrial amphibians they make up for their lack of water by using their urinary bladder as an organic canteen!
Of course when somebody grabs them they trim the tanks to avoid injury, and possibly dissuade you from eating their toxic flesh!
So more of an Arya than a Sansa, eh? (Game of Thrones reference, more obvious on the second book.)
Think of it this way: She’s a self-rescuing princess. No knight needed. This will save you a LOT of worry later in life. Instead of coming home crying “He tried to kiss me and I couldn’t stop him”, it’ll be “He tried to kiss me, so I beat his head on the steering wheel, took away his car keys and left him at the mall. I’ll call his mom to come pick up the car and go get him.” Much less headache for you.
Seriously though, having a girl that doesn’t mind bugs and slime is a good thing, we’ve got a girl here that goes “eek” over flies, the dark, worms… you name it.