Born Free

In an earlier post, I described our new "pet" Patsy. Patsy was a caterpillar given to us by Emily's friend next door. We carefully kept Patsy in a jelly jar and fed her the leaves from the vine on which we found her. I even dropped a few drops of water in the top of the jar (I have no idea if caterpillars need water but it made sense to me). After about 10 days Patsy turned into a chrysalis that was first bright green, then later turned black.

I had been keeping a close eye on her in hopes she would in fact turn into a monarch butterfly like our neighbor's did. One day I picked it up to let Emily peek in the jar and at the very moment I bent down to show her, Patsy came out transformed into a beautiful butterfly. I mean at that exact moment we watched her emerge from her chrysalis. How cool is that!?!? I told Emily we would soon have to let her go outside as she wouldn't survive in her jar for very long. It took a little bit of convincing since Emily told me, "But Patsy's my friend." But the next day, as I watched Patsy struggling to spread her wings in the confined space, I took the jar to Emily and without me saying a word she looked at me and in a very grown up way asked, "Is it time?" I told her yes, it was time. So we let Patsy out of her jar in some flowers I had spotted other monarchs land on. At first, Patsy did nothing. I was worried. How would I explain it if the end of the story wasn't a happily ever after ending? But after about five minutes of Patsy stretching her wings repeatedly, she fluttered a few feet away and landed in the grass. Again, I was worried. But with a little nudging on my part with a stick, Patsy took flight. It was a breezy day (what day isn't in Kansas?) so we watched as Patsy floated up to our rooftop, cross our driveway, and fly past the neighbor's house. That was the last we saw of her.

I have never kept a caterpillar and watched this process so I think I was as excited, or perhaps more so, as Emily. Luckily I have photos of the process from start to finish.

Patsy in her full glory.

Here Emily is telling Patsy she can come back and visit us if she wants. :-)

You have to click on the photo above and look in the top left corner to see Patsy flying away. Godspeed, Patsy. Thanks for letting us take care of you. :-)