A small green stranger showed up unannounced on Sita Hood’s front door one evening last year. The guest was a toad, and she made herself at home without any hesitation.

Hood might have expelled that brazen amphibian. Instead, she presented a shoe.

The toad evidently enjoyed that first night so much, she decided to stay. Each day from there, after sunset, she’d snack on bugs on and around Hood’s porch.

She became such a fixture there, Hood even named her — Jabba the Toad.

“I started leaving the light on to attract bugs for Jabba,” Hood told The Dodo.

When Jabba wasn’t hungry, or just needed a rest, she would always return to her favorite spot — one of Hood’s running shoes left out on the porch.

Having a toad occupying her shoe meant that Hood couldn’t wear it, of course. But Hood didn’t mind.

“Donating my shoe was no big deal,” she said. “If it afforded her comfort or protection, why not?”

Jabba, no doubt, appreciated Hood’s hospitality — and she clearly didn’t forget about it.

Near the end of the summer, Hood observed Jabba hop away from the shoe, down the porch, and into the woods around her house, where she was probably going to hibernate for the next winter.

For the first time in months, Hood’s shoe was free for her foot, but the toad wouldn’t stay out forever.

The next spring, Jabba came back.

Hood said, “One morning, there she was in my shoe.”

Jabba’s second summer at home in Hood’s shoe transpired much like the first had. But there was one little incident.

Apparently, not everyone knew of Jabba and Hood’s arrangement.

“A well-meaning friend picked up my shoes, and put Jabba in the flower bed,” Hood said. “I put my shoes back and, undeterred, Jabba was back later that night.”

Hood even put a sign above the shoes, just to make sure there’d be no more uncalled-for evictions.

Like the first, Jabba’s second summer in the shoe eventually came to an end. One day, she just up and left.

Hood isn’t sure if she’ll be back next year, but either way, her memories of Jabba will always remain.

Jabba was more than just a toad residing in Hood’s shoe, despite the fact that she probably never dreamed she’d take on the role of host and go above and above in the process.

I was happy and pleased to be friends with Jabba, Hood added. We are all interconnected in the web of life, and on good days, we all support one another.