26 October 2011 Praying Mantis

The wildlife abounds on our front porch lately. Yesterday Sam found a caterpillar, adopted her, named her “Clever” and today made her a habitat out of the bottom of a plastic milk jug. Clever likes to eat basil leaves, crawl on a stick, and listen to Sam read “The Hungry Caterpillar.” (Yeah, that was cute).

This evening we noticed several beetle-type creatures and a swarm of ladybugs, besides the usual stinkbugs hanging around our porch. Then I spotted the praying mantis. Awesome! May you feast on stinkbugs, we said.

But then our neighbor’s cat, Kili, came over to visit and now the praying mantis isn’t doing so well. It’s still alive, but doesn’t want to move from the middle of our porch. Perhaps tomorrow morning we’ll construct a hospital wing next to the caterpillar condo.