Now that Elian is at an age to appreciate the metamorphosis of creatures, I thought I'd try my hand at some caterpillar care. Our first caterpillar, "Catty" we called him, er, or her, I found crawling on my niece Chloe when we were at Minnehaha Falls. After some quick research, Ed found out that it ate oak leaves and that it would turn into not a beautiful butterfly, but a common moth (insert Debbie Downer sound effect). Still, we took care of that little guy like he was the family pet. It was very exciting when he started to make his cocoon (that looked more like a spider web to me). He stayed in that cocoon for months before I decided he wasn't coming out.
So a week or so ago, Elian and I were in the front garden when we spotted this little guy:
Do I dare try my hand at caterpillar care? I thought. But Elian was super excited. Maybe THIS one will turn into a beautiful butterfly. But after some quick research we learned, no, not this one. This one turns into another moth. A tiger moth (sounds fierce!) But Elian insisted we keep it. So I scraped Catty's crusty old cocoon out and we rinsed out the bug cage.
It's been about two weeks and I'm happy to report that Catty II is still alive and well. We had a close call about an hour ago when I was cleaning out his cage and giving him his daily dandelion and plantain salad (Do you know how much caterpillars poop? Who'da thought?) when Catty II fell out the hole and into the garbage. I fished around in the wet coffee grounds and god knows what else for a good five minutes before I found him. I almost gave up because the garbage was a little gross but I couldn't bring myself to have to tell Elian, "Mama accidentally dumped Catty II in the garbage..." The poor fuzzy little guy. I think he's okay, but he's probably got a pretty good caffeine buzz.
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