Sunday, April 13, 2008

Butterflies

About six or so weeks ago I ordered one of those butterfly kits with caterpillars. A few days later a kit with 5 live caterpillars arrived at our door.



We watched the caterpillars as they turned to chrysalids in the cup, then carefully transferred them to the habitat. Soon after transfer, three butterflies emerged!



One thing I hadn't thought a lot about was our cat... and how much HE would like the butterflies. And he thought they looked like tastey little morsels. The hardest thing about the whole process was keeping the habitat out of his reach. For a young kitten with amazing abilities to get places you would never guess (we found him on top of the kitchen cupboards sleeping yesterday), no place is out of reach.



Except a room with a door that shuts.



Our guest room became the locale for the butterfly habitat which was a bummer since it wasn't out all the time. Still the kids (yes, Skadi loved them every bit as much as Leif) loved watching them.



Today it was finally warm enough to release them. Amazingly - and despite all the manhandling by Skadi (she didn't quite understand their fragile nature when daddy put one on her), they hung around the back yard for quite awhile.










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