Amusing photo but I can't believe the National Geographic article called the toad a frog. I'm worried that the current trend in media to plus up the average flood photo with paid actors or canoes in knee-deep water, may have trickled down to the magazine. Could this mouse have been stapled on to the toad's back?

If it were anyone other than National Geo, I'd wonder; but exceptional photos are their stock in trade. No stringers for them; they pay professionals to burn a hundred rolls of film for a couple of great pics.
Looks like a toad to me. Maybe they know something we don't. Or maybe a bad captioner.

Thanks for the clarification - the Quick Response Force at PETA can stand down. It probably was a captioner back at NG HQ - had it been local, the caption might have read "Surf and Turf".

OK, OK - something I just don't get. According to the story, the Indians are taking the frogs and marrying them in hopes that some god will being rain. A rather odd prayer for a region suffering from monsoon floods I would think.

But that is why I am just a simpleton American I suppose.

"Monsoon" is actually a seasonal wind system that comes up from the south of India bringing rain. The farmers need the rains for their crops, naturally. Sometimes there's too much of a good thing, though, and that's the flooding we associate with the word "monsoon."