A few weeks after we moved into our home in June of 2000, there was a tremendous rainstorm that flooded the streets and left standing water everywhere. Walking out the side door afterwards, I came across a rain-soaked American Toad (Bufo americanus) crouching by the gate, and then nearly stepped on a Plains Garter Snake (Thamnophis radix). The snake zipped away, and I tucked the toad under a bush, out of harm’s way. In our twenty five years here, I’ve not seen another toad, but the yard garters have been constant companions during fair and foul weather, and a source of much enjoyment. As a field herper living in the middle of The Great Corn Desert that is central Illinois,…