Joe the Caterpillar

I'm certain you can see where this is going. The kids had a half day of school on Friday. My darling daughter and her friends "rescued" this caterpillar. You can hear the excitement in my voice can't you. You'll never guess who was nominated to babysit the said caterpillar over the weekend. Yep, K80... she had a hard time deciding on a name so she called me. And she wanted to know how to tell the sex of a caterpillar. I was out with my friend, Amy when she called. We could hardly contain ourselves, laughing so hard trying to describe how to check the sex of a caterpillar. I can't tell the head from the butt most of the time let a lone what sex it was. K80 had to give it a name, we still don't' know what sex it is ...so he is forever named... Joe the Caterpillar. (Josephine in case it was a girl!) Amy and I swung by the house to pick up the kids to go out for lunch. K80 didn't want Joe to go hungry so she gave him some lettuce and fresh leaves. Isn't she a good mommy?

I think I failed to mention that she left his door open, the lid to his shoebox aka... his mobile home. "I wanted Joe to have some fresh air!" When we arrived home much to our our surprise (not really more like hysterical panic) Joe had run away. He was gone. She looked over each blade of grass crying that Joe had run away. I was fuming that a fuzzy creature is roaming free in my home. His mobile home was parked on the kitchen counter and we looked and looked and looked. For what seemed like hours.

A short time later after all hope was gone K80 moved the laundry basket and low and behold there was Joe the Caterpillar! He had crawled out of his mobile home, down the kitchen cabinets, across the kitchen floor, through the dining room and on his way to the laundry room. Not sure what he had hoped to find there but he was rescued AGAIN! (which I am forever happy for I would have hated to pour a bowl of Lucky Charms and find a worm in my milk!)

K80 secured him for the evening (on the front porch!), and off to dream land we went.

In the morning he was fine, that evening he was fine. Sunday morning he was fine, Sunday night he was fine. Guess What .... on Monday morning he had a heart attack with the mere thought of returning to Middle School. Monday morning he was dead. K80 boooo-hoooed. Dad laughed and I did my best to console my lil' Doodle Bug who had witness the untimely death of her beloved Joe. I told her I would take care of him. She begged for a proper burial. Off to school she went on her bike having to face her friends and inform them of the death of poor fuzzy Joe.

I'm certain your wondering what I did with Joe. I didn't do what any good mom would do; have a short ceremony for poor Joe before flushing him! I did what any GREAT mom would do... I flung his dead arss in the yard, tossed the container in the recycling bin and came inside for a nice cup of hot cocoa!

P.S. I asked K80 when she got home from school how her friends handled the tragic death... she replied. They forgot all about poor Joe!