Sluggy and his pals

When my parents were here over Mother's Day weekend, Sadie found a caterpillar and adopted him/her as her very own pet. She named him Sluggy (I am pretty sure she said it was a 'him') and tenderly cared for him as she would any living creature or tiny child. (No lack of maternal instinct in this girl!)

She sat and coaxed Sluggy into walking onto her hand by saying, in that 'baby talk' voice we have all heard too many times, "Come on Sluggy, you can do it buddy, come on....come on. There you go! Good job Sluggy!"

And then she found a friend for Sluggy and HER name was Fuzzy

So proud of her little home she made for them....

After we got back from the hospital and dinner that night, Sluggy was gone (and somehow she knew it was Fuzzy that was still there!)

But the next morning, Blake found another caterpillar outside and said, "Sadie, I found Sluggy" and she was overjoyed! Sure enough, it was definitely Sluggy himself. I told Sadie that he must have come back because he knew his mommy (Sadie, of course) was here and would take such good care of him.

She spent a fair amount of time on Sunday taking the caterpillars out of their 'home' and letting them walk around and get some exercise.

Thankfully the caterpillars are in abundance because on two separate occasions, Blake would be looking at them with Sadie and watching her and then just grab one and step on it!! Sadie was at first mortified and got so upset and we attempted to tell Blake that he couldn't kill them, but he did it a second time before he realized that they didn't come back to life. Poor Sadie.

By Monday, she had six caterpillars and I believe she had named them all, but I couldn't keep up. When she got home from school, she took them all for a walk in the stroller.......

I think the one climbing up the back of the stroller must have been Sluggy, attempting escape once again.

Today we are up to twelve. I don't think they will last long, however, and on a few occasions I have heard her say, "I don't like it when they play dead" and then just poke them with a stick to make sure they still have some life left in them. They are hanging in there, but I'm not sure how much abuse they can take. They may all be wishing Blake had his way with them!