When Amanda Lynn Ramirez and her family sat down to carve pumpkins the other day, she couldn’t wait to see her design come to life. The pumpkins would be displayed in the family’s yard, filled with homemade “fairy gardens,” and she wanted her jack-o’-lantern
to fit the theme.
After hollowing out the gourd, she carved out two symmetrical grid windows and an oval door to make a cozy little pumpkin house. She then placed her pumpkin outside next to her husband’s and daughter’s, dropping a tealight candle inside for later.
The pumpkin house turned out exactly as Ramirez had envisioned it. But she couldn’t have anticipated that, just a few hours later, a living creature would actually be moving in.
In the evening, the family went back out to light their pumpkins, and they nearly jumped when they realized the pumpkin house was already occupied by a sweet, bumpy toad.
“My daughter and my husband went to light it, and when they stuck the lighter in my pumpkin, they both went, ‘Oh, there’s a frog …’” Ramirez told The Dodo. "[H]e moved in very fast!"
The toad was unfazed by his visitors and stayed put in the cozy pumpkin house as they observed him. It was the perfect size for him, complete with a chandelier of seeds hanging over his head and an unlit tealight that looked like it could be a little stool or table.
For the toad’s safety, Ramirez opted not to light the candle in her jack-o’-lantern that evening. It was a sacrifice she was happy to make, knowing that a backyard critter had taken refuge in the eco-friendly home she’d built.
You can watch that moment here:
The toad stuck around for a little while longer before eventually hopping off to a new adventure. And while no other toads have visited the family’s jack-o’-lantern display since then, Ramirez’s pumpkin turned out to be particularly popular with the other critters passing through her yard.
“Nothing has happened with any of our other pumpkins, but mine has since been destroyed by a deer,” Ramirez said. “So, there’s something about my pumpkin that all the wildlife are attracted to!”
Having a toad move into her jack-o’-lantern was the last thing Ramirez expected when carving pumpkins the other day. But after witnessing that magical moment, she can’t imagine choosing any other design in the future.
“I feel like I need to carve an entire pumpkin village now,” Ramirez wrote on Instagram.
