Another project in my Painting and Drawing class from last fall focused on toads. A little history is required here: in September 2007, just before school started, my girlfriend Lisa and I stopped, on a whim, at PetWorld in Milwaukee. And we bought a toad, a Great Plains Toad, whose name we debated for the next several hours while driving to Carleton. While I initially suggested “Tybalt,” (as in “Tybalt the Toad”) Lisa came up with “Bartleby,” and we both agreed that it suited him well. The name comes from the 1853 Herman Melville short story “Bartleby, the Scrivener.” Our Bartleby was far less morose than Melville’s titular character. In fact, he was quite the opposite.

On the first day we arrived, after setting up Bartleby’s tank in Lisa’s room, we left for dinner. When we returned, we found him calmly sitting atop the tank, as if he’d been waiting for us. It turned out that if the top of the tank wasn’t properly fastened, he could jump, open a lid with his head, grab on, and climb on top. It wasn’t the only time we found him in a place where he wasn’t supposed to be. He enjoyed hiding in the corners of Lisa’s room, underneath her bed, and in her winter boots.

Pets, except for fish, aren’t allowed in the dorms. Bartleby was our secret, and even when Lisa made her documentary on pets at Carleton, she decided not to include Bartleby in it (fame would probably have gone to his head anyway). When it came time to leave for the summer, we decided at the last minute to leave Bartleby at the pet store in Northfield. And in September, when we returned, we were told that he had mysteriously escaped one night.

We think he was trying to find us.

I focused on toads for the first part of my Painting and Drawing class as an outlet for my strong emotions toward Bartleby. I had few pets growing up, two turtles when I was 6 or 7, a beta fish three years ago, and then Bartleby. Over the year, I grew attached to him, and it was hard to accept that he was gone.

And you can find a photo of the infamous toad Bartleby himself here.

So if you’re in Northfield, and you see a toad resembling either the watercolor or the photo, and he responds positively to the name Bartleby, please let me know. I miss him.