Early the Caterpillar

Our daughters have a caterpillar named Early. Our good family friend Cathy brought it to them in a clear, plastic terrarium case, along with a hearty supply of milkweed leaves for it to eat. When the girls peeked in, they saw that the caterpillar was suctioned onto the underside of the lid at that particular moment, and they assumed it was already planning to transmogrify into a chrysalis. However, they also knew it was too early for it to enter that stage--thus, the name Early.

As it turns out, Early knew all too well that it wasn't yet time to form a pupa. It has since been all over the terrarium, exploring, stopping to eat its weight in leaves, hanging from the side or from the lid, and pooping. And pooping and pooping and pooping. The other morning, the girls and Susan were cleaning Early's poop out of the terrarium, and Suzanna christened Early a "lean, green, pooping machine." Early doesn't seem to mind.

In a week or so, Early will attach itself to a twig and metamorphose into a chrysalis, in which form it will stay for a couple weeks before emerging as a monarch butterfly. Early will inflate its wings with blood (stored in its abdomen while inside the pupa), then rest and wait for us to release it outside. Suzanna had a caterpillar a few years ago that she named Darin. It was a bittersweet moment that day on the driveway when we shooed Darin out of her (yes, "her") container and into the sky for her journey to Mexico for the winter. Soon we'll bid adieu to Early, too. I think a few weeks trapped in a plastic case tapped daily by thirty tiny fingers is a small price to pay for a winter spent in the South.