My dad (guess where he was from) always declared that everything was bigger in Texas.

Wel, he would have been wrong about this one. Visitors to the city of Darwin in the Northern Territory were amazed at what was found prowling the suburban streets last night.

A massive cane toad, bigger than Paris Hilton's dog, has been captured. Locals were shocked at its size.

You can read one of the many articles about it, and see a picture of it here!

Shudder, Leslie!

Hope they don't get as far as Adelaide.

Sheesh Valda! I actually looked to see what the date was on the news article.

It's rare that I say thank God I live in Canberra!

I lived up in Mackay for a year in '77, and the place was chockers full of them.

We were catching a couple regularly each night upo to about six weeks ago, and now I have only caught one in the last few weeks.

What is more disturbing is that we are not hearing the frogs that usually inhabit the rocks around the waterfall of our swimming pool. I don't think the toads got them, but something has scared them away, eaten, or killed them.

The article made Yahoo News here in the US. Crikey!

Wow, that sucker is HUGE!

I saw it on the news last night.

Leslie, I am going to send you a copy of "Cane Toads, an Unnatural History." It has a section with a couple of little girls with their pet toads which they dress up in little dresses. One of the girls calls her toad "Dairy Queen".

Gee John, what I can say?

Dairy Queen

Gees, I'd like to say, "What can I say?" - but I'm sure I'd find a typo in it the next day.

So instead, I'll just state that I find it a)hard to believe and b)unpleasant to think that there are ten of these for every person in Australia!

Oh and John, where'd you dig up that pic of me when I was a little girl up in Redcliffe, Queensland?

Well it certainly would make a great purse.

They are very good hitchhikers and we nearly had that problem when travelling in far north Queensland. We heard this sqealing noise coming from the back of the landcruiser and when we looked, there was a toad jammed between the rear window and door closer. Yuk! It had jumped quite a height to get there too! After that episode, we checked the underneath of the caravan every time we left a destination. We certainly don't want them here in WA, but it's too late as they have already been found near Kununurra.

Elly