Butterfly rescue
- By Alison
- 24 July, 2009
- Comments Off on Butterfly rescue
The day started with screaming this morning. I had to investigate like the partially good mother that I am, and partly because I could hear jamie screaming
“Toby’s got a [gibberish]”. I assumed the missing portion of that sentence was mouse, and I don’t relish the job of cleaning mouse guts off
our carpet – which is sort of reminiscent of mouse guts in the first place.
The missing word turned out to be not mouse, but butterfly, and I don’t think I have ever seen jamie quite so devastated at something. She was quite beside
herself with panic and sobbing uncontrollably – running away and hiding in the back room so she didn’t have to see.
Toby, the miscreant, was under the table trying to get a good grip on his flapping morsel. I was surprised to see flapping – I was expecting a pair of wings
stuck on his nose like sideburns. I grabbed him around the middle and yanked him out from under there smartly, then tried to console jamie.
Trying to comfort a child whilst holding a fully armed whirling claw machine stuck in full throttle isn’t easy, so I got a large tupperware container and
placed it over the butterfly, then handed the cat off to Molly. Who wasn’t able to hold on to him, but by then it didn’t matter.
After sliding a piece of paper under the container, I was able to lift up the butterfly safely inside. The wings were very torn, and I didn’t see how it
would fly again. We took it outside and collected some leaves and flowers, then I placed them into the container, and tipped the butterfly in. It actually
tried to fly. Unfortunately I could see the full wingspan, and there was less than half a wing on the top of one side.
After explaining to the still distraught jamie that the butterfly will probably die, but it least it’s going to die in a happy and pretty place, we put the
container onto the top rack of the greenhouse shelves. It’s still there now, and still alive. It’s pouring with rain as well, but there is a cover over
the shelves.
I googled a bit and found some comments by a researcher specifically talking about monarch butterflys who has been amazed to find some of his subjects still
flying with less than half a wing. That gives hope! I’ll keep an eye on this little guy and see if he flies away or just passes away.
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