russell the caterpillar
While visiting Door County I happened across some milkweed and spotted some caterpillars. I pointed them out to Mike, and he excitedly replied that they were monarch caterpillars. This was good news as we had been mourning the loss of our other caterpillar pet (he ran away when Lucy knocked his “home” over, we don’t dare imagine that Lucy would have eaten him). We decided right then and there that we would be taking one home with us to make him part of our family and watch the stages from caterpillar to butterfly.
After much consideration we named him Russell. It was actually Mike’s choice, and there was no convincing him otherwise even though Annie and Mimi really wanted to name him Sparkles or some princessy sounding name. By the way, we have no idea if “he” is a boy or girl. For all we know, every time we call him Russell he could be cringing with shear agony of being thought of as a boy.
We made sure to take care of Russell during our drive home from Door County. It occurred to us that we’d have to take Russell to Minnesota with us to stay with Grandma while we went to SD. Grandma seemed to be okay with taking care of this particular pet instead of Lucy. Her only responsibility was to feed him new milkweed leaves every so often. Russell did appreciate Grandma’s care, but he was so thrilled to have us back with him again.
Meet Russell.
Not long after arriving home from MN we noticed Russell had attached himself to the top of the netting in his bughouse via some white webby-looking substance. The next day we saw he was hard at work getting himself ready for the pupa stage. He had made a little bubble around himself, and we could see him squirming inside. By the end of the day he was a full-fledged pupa. What’s even more beautiful about Russell the Pupa is that he has gold sparkles. Maybe Annie was on to something when she came up with her name choice. According to the internets, Russell will be in this stage for about 10 days. Oh, we can’t wait to meet Russell the Monarch Butterfly.
Russell the Pupa.
Like any proud parent, we filmed Russell while eating.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eDKCtPpLQQ