Our summer pet

Gus and I were on a walk with the kids a few months back and there on a piece of milkweed was a monarch caterpillar.  I immediately decided we ought to raise him, while Gus rolled his eyes at another of my hair brained schemes.  We brought him home along with a tiger caterpillar who soon escaped (largely because I had not made a cage) and had to be relocated outdoors.  Anyway, the whole thing turned out to be awesome fun.  Fun facts we learned from our pet monarch:

(1) Monarch caterpillars are very impressive at pooing.  This, I guess, goes hand in hand with being impressive eaters.  But it isn't just how much they poo that is impressive, but how far they poo.  There was poo landing as far as 16 lateral inches away from the milk weed plant the caterpillar was on.  The kids were impressed when I told them that was like them pooing and having it land down the block. 

(2) Monarchs make their chrysalis very quickly.  We researched the whole process and woke one morning to find our Monarch hanging upside down in a J shape.  We knew from online research that meant she would make her chrysalis, so checked on her obsessively.  She hung in a J for an eternity.  We went on one short walk, during which time Ted watched her closely.  Somehow, she made her Chrysalis in a span of 5 minutes when no one was watching.

(3) I always envisioned the Chrysalis to be something that the caterpillar spins around itself.  It isn't.  They just shed their skin and the Chrysalis is underneath.  The Chrysalis has a line of golden shimmering dots on it that Darwyn was delighted to discover.

(4) Monarchs hatch from their chrysalis very quickly.  This was an exact replica of what happened in point 2.  We missed the whole thing.  One minute we looked and there was a chrysalis, the next there was a butterfly drying its wings.


Anyway, here is a video and a cute picture of Darwyn to enjoy: