lovely lil ladies. a story for m & s

today gideon was suddenly fascinated by the (growing) collection of ladybugs in the corners of our sunny bay window. at his persistent request, i carefully caught one of the wee creatures and knelt down to show him how it crawled up and down my hand. he made numerous excited exclamations, as he is known to do, then he promptly grabbed the lady from me. and, with the total lack of remorse that can only come from pure, unblemished curiosity, he smooshed it into a tiny, spotted ladyburger.



i decided that was too brief an encounter with this newly discovered wonder; that he deserved another chance. i poked an air hole in a small plastic container, caught two more ladybugs and gave them to him, this time with some protection from his eager fingers. i left him alone for a moment studying his new pets.



it was but 30 seconds later that i came upon him with both ladybites in his mouth! judging from his expression (not shown), they are not particularly tasty.



these images are from our 3rd try: reinforced protection from an overly curious keeper..