Thursday, November 29, 2007

Wooly Worms are Our Friends

As a kid I tried to make all animals my pet that didn't have a collar, leash and a human attached to it. This would include the unusual types like, earthworms, caterpillars, frogs, turtles and the praying mantis that lived on our front porch every summer. 

Of all the childhood "pets" I claimed, I loved my wooly worms the most. Maybe it was because I could only find them in Boone, NC? Maybe it was because they looked like tiny, prickly porcupines, just friendlier? I don't know, but to this day I'm still fascinated by them. So you can imagine how excited I was to see a wooly worm crossing the Greenway Trail as Seka and I were walking a couple of weeks ago. I scooped him up (sexing wooly worms is very technical, ya know) and took him along for the rest of our journey.  He crawled all over my arm and vest and when we stopped to rest, Seka had to see what mom was so excited about. She could care less. So, I made her pose for photos with our friend the wooly worm.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

seka doesn't look impressed at all. perhaps she fears the unibrow look.

i had a pet slug once. i kept it in a jar. my mom said if i loved it too much it would die. i declared my love for it and the next day it was dead. i think that was her way of saying, "you've not poked any holes in the lid, so you're killing it. but i don't mind; it's not in my garden."

pattysea said...

Are these the same caterpillars that defoliate the trees here, in New England? One summer they were attached to our house and we could here the splat, splat, splat as they fell off ... YUCK!!!! They have nest in the trees and I'm sure you don't want to know that we burned them down ...