my wife and i live in a heavily wooded area in new york state. we have a small pond about a hundred yards from our house.

about a month ago we noticed that a toad had taken up residence under the steps outside our kitchen door.

the little guy is as regular as clockwork: during the day, he's tucked into his apartment. at sundown, he comes out and takes up his post outside the sliding door leading to the patio.

so far we haven't seen him feeding, although last night we offered him a few pill-bugs and a couple of earth-worms.

on one occasion he had an overnight guest - a smaller toad was sharing his apartment with him.

so, a couple of questions:

- are toads usually this predictable? is this unusual, or have others observed similar behavior?

- are they territorial? and if so, what is the usual size of their territory?

- was his overnight guest a challenger? did our guy (we've named him 'toby') make a meal of his guest?

- at what point in the season do they hibernate? we're assuming that he'll head down the hill towards the pond, and find some nice soft earth to dig himself in for the winter. his current dwelling, a space about 1' x 1' x 3" is concrete, and won't provide any insulation during the cold months. and it will be snowed under for most of that time.

- is there anything we can do to protect him from predators? our property has snakes, raccoons, owls, bats, and foxes. we have dogs, and we're wondering whether we should encourage them to mark around the patio where toby hangs out at night. (naturally, we keep the dogs away from this area.)

any other suggestions to a couple of neophyte toad-o-philes are, of course, welcome.

thanks!!