I opened a bag of garden soil and inside it I found...

[Vanth]

...dirt. Oh, and a frog. What, were you expecting Bigfoot maybe? 8P

On the third shovel-full this little guy was sitting on the top: Vanth's Album: Random Pictures

It's a wonder I didn't chop him in half, the way I was trying to break up the compacted dirt to get it out. I actually thought he was dead when I first saw him, thickly coated in the soil, limbs splayed, and unmoving. It was only after I picked him up and he moved a little I realized he was still alive, though barely it seemed, as he hardly moved or struggled while I was holding him. I immediately rinsed the dirt off him; I'm sure the additives in the garden soil are not good for his froggy skin. I filled a plastic tank with water and put in a brick I washed off (basically the way I kept frogs I caught as a kid). My guess is that he was probably pretty dehydrated, because after 30 min in the water he was acting more like a normal healthy frog, really active and voraciously devouring everything that landed in front of him -- it didn't even have to be alive. He also started to shed his skin after 10min... then ate it. I'm sure that wasn't good for him, with any residual chemicals on it. :/

I'm 97% certain that this is an American Bullfrog. If I can get confirmation or at least a consensus that he's at least a native species to the Mid-Atlantic region, I'll happily take him down the gravel/dirt road to a quiet little pond and release him. If non-native, I suppose I can keep him as a pet. He's certainly a cute little guy. However I'm fairly certain he's at least native, because garden soil being heavy, they tend to make it nearby and not ship it too far.

I'm still wondering how he got into the bag. I thought maybe he crawled into a compost heap to hibernate through the winter, since they tend to be warm, and got packed up in the spring, but I'm fairly sure he wouldn't have survived that process. My best guess is that for some unfathomable reason he crawled into the plastic bag while it was on my patio, and got stuck there for a few days. It's not like there's a pond close by, but maybe he was attracted to the constant puddle caused by the leaking pool filter?

[DigitalPunk]

Awesome save! If only he could share his story, I bet it would be super interesting!