BlueEyedZoo.com

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10… 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10… No matter how many times I counted, I could only find 10 caterpillars in our caterpillar box today. They are pretty sneaky and sometimes you can be staring right at one but not see him. However, I was convinced that #11 was on the loose. And I was right. I found him under the baker’s rack a few moments later. I moved him to the butterfly house (the box is just temporary) since I thought he would be making his chrysalis soon. I kept counting the other 10 to make sure they were still all there. The temporary box does have some holes in the sides but I thought I had them all covered. Despite a few close scares, I always managed to find the 10 remaining caterpillars in (or on) the box. Until this evening 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9…. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9…. One was definitely missing. George couldn’t find him either. Then we spotted some frass outside the box. (Frass would be caterpillar poop. It looks like little dark green balls – aren’t you glad you know that now?) We still have not found him/her, even after a very thorough search of the kitchen. My main concern now is her safety. I can’t guarantee what my son will do if he finds a pretty ‘pillar crawling his way.

The butterfly house is really just a mesh, pop-up cylinder. To get a better look at the cat today, E just grabbed the side of the house to pull it closer to her. The caterpillar happened to be in the spot where she grabbed. Thus she effectively pinched the cat through the mesh part. A frightened caterpillar sticks up these orange horn-looking things. I have seen them before, but this time his “horns” were about twice as long as I have ever seen. I guess they work because if I was a predator, I think I would have been quite scared!!

Filed under: Adventures, Family on July 5th, 2005