You are looking at Joaquin's praying mantis, Fast Catcher. So called because he's very fast at catching bugs. We found him on our screen one morning, where he stayed during the entire morning Joaquin was at preschool. When he came home Joaquin was enraptured, he watched him for forever. We had a spare bug cage thanks to a birthday party at Explora so once he seemed destined to stay with us he had a home. Of course he needed something to eat, so Daniel and Joaquin spent an evening trying to catch him some bugs. Turns out they don't like ants and other bugs can be hard to catch. After looking under some old bricks etc, Daniel was finally able to catch a cricket (impressive I thought) so Fast Catcher ate royally. The next morning Joaquin and I went to the pet store and purchased him some more. I have rarely seen Joaquin as interested as he was in Fast Catcher, he would watch him catch and eat bugs for as long as it lasted. However unfortunately Fast Catcher has gone to his just reward as of this morning. That's the problem with bugs as pets, they don't live very long and you have now way of know how old they are when you catch them. Joaquin seemed fine, but as we looked closer he was on the verge of tears, just manfully trying to hold them back. We don't know why he was so reluctant to give in to his grief, but I made him snuggle with me until he seemed to have his equanimity back. Poor baby, we are burying Fast Catcher tomorrow in the flower beds so I hope that will give him some closure. Side, somewhat related story, Joaquin is now a dragonfly ninja. Some friends came by for a birthday dinner for Daniel and when Joaquin went out to greet them they discovered a dragonfly sitting on the bricks. Joaquin leaned over and grabbed it. Seriously! He brought it inside to show us and then let it go in the living room. While we were bemoaning this, he caught it again! And then released it into the backyard. Go figure. Nerves of steel that one.
No comments:
Post a Comment