Good Things

Several weeks ago, Sam, Abby and I were out for a walk when we came across a Woolly Bear caterpillar, one of those black, fuzzy caterpillars whose thick bristles are supposed to portend a cold winter.

We put it in our terrarium, along with some leaves and twigs. It ate a lot and pooped a lot. I checked on it a lot. About a week ago when I checked the terrarium there were two Woolly Bears. Come to find out, they shed their 'segments' before preparing their cocoons. A couple days after shedding, the segments seemed dead, but cradled in a curvy leaf was a fluorescent green cocoon.

Every morning when I fed our fish I'd check it and this morning I noticed the green cocoon had turned grey. Maybe it was dying, maybe it was transforming. And then this afternoon, while I was online trying to find out how long a Woolly Bear hibernates, Sam ran into the den to tell me there was a moth in our terrarium. Sure enough the green cocoon was now a soft, oozing shell and there was a big, active Tiger Moth in its place. We took the terrarium outside to release the moth. And then found 3 more Woolly Bears.

(Update: Four Wooly Bears later, we have not been able to replicate the success of the first Wooly Bear.)