Loveland frog

If it exists, it's chuffing huge!

Part of RationalWiki's Cryptid Petting Zoo

Hiding with Schrödinger's cat

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Not to be confused with the Mexican Staring Frog of Southern Sri Lanka. Nor Pepe the Frog.

The Loveland frog (aka the Loveland lizard) is an alleged frog-like cryptid that has the body of a human and the head and face of a frog with green, leathery skin and webbed feet. It is alleged to stand at around 4 feet (1.2 meters) tall and walks upright. It's named after its alleged location in Loveland, Ohio.

The totally true first sighting

The first sighting of the Loveland Frog(s) involves a salesman (or businessman) who spotted some of them near a bridge in 1955.

“The salesman watched as the three frog-people talked amongst themselves, each oblivious to their observer. The salesman noted they all seemed to be about three and a half feet tall, with leathery skin and webbed hands and feet. They had bulging eyes, wide mouths, and deep grooves on their heads instead of hair.  Suddenly, one of the figures noticed the salesman. They pulled out a wand and waved it, sending a spray of sparks flying in the air. The man sped away, the first witness to the Loveland Frog, with the peculiar smell of alfalfa and almonds trailing behind his car.”

Of course, “the salesman’s name has been forgotten” and “this first account does not give an exact location or road”. Perhaps there was also the peculiar smell of marijuana in the air...

Next sightings

One March night in 1972, a police officer named Ray Shockey reported he saw a weird creature at Riverside Drive/Kemper Road near a boot factory. That same month, Officer Mark Matthews witnessed the same creature. Figuring that no one would believe he witnessed a weird creature, Mathews decided to take blurry photos shoot and kill the creature, which he took and showed to Shockey. Shockey confirmed it was the same creature he had seen earlier: a large iguana that had lost its tail (which was why it looked weird).

Matthews claims he told this encounter, including the part where the creature was discovered to be an iguana, to a writer about urban legends. However, for some mysterious reason that will likely never be solved, the writer omitted the part where the creature was killed and discovered to be a regular animal. This caused Matthews to outright call the story of the Loveland Frog a hoax.

Matthews stated, “There is absolutely nothing to the incident that relates to monsters or the paranormal. This entire thing has been habitually blown out of proportion… It was and is no 'monster'. It was not leathery or had wet matted fur. It was not 3-5 feet tall. It did not stand erect. The animal I saw was obviously some type of lizard that someone had as a pet that either got too large for its aquarium, escaped by accident or they simply got tired of it. It was less than 3 feet in length, ran across the road and was probably blinded by my headlights. It presented no aggressive action.”

Recent sightings

After having been nonexistent in hiding for decades, the Loveland Frog was apparently sighted by some people playing Pokémon Go, who took video evidence of their sighting, which depicts an unmoving frog shaped creature with shining and unblinking eyes.

It’s possible that the Frogman in the video simply depicts a Wilson and Fisher Solar Frog, an unmoving frog shaped ornament with shining and unblinking eyes. (Or perhaps the aforementioned Mexican Staring Frog of Southern Sri Lanka.)

No word yet on if it can defeat Bulbasaur.