Catty

Typically, this is what people think of when they hear the word catty:

cat-ty

adj. cat-ti-er, cat-ti-est

1. subtly, cruel or malicious; spitelful: a catty remark

2. catlike; stealthy

But not at our house. Catty is our former caterpillar. The caterpillar my kids captured in their bug catcher late last summer because he was going to turn into a butterfly. He wrapped himself into a chrysalis and settled in for a time.

Then fall came, and there was no butterfly.

Winter was next and, well, you know.

I put the bug catcher in the garage for the winter. Our very.long.winter. Our very long, COLD, winter. The very long, cold winter that we all thought would never end.

(You get it, right?)

Once it was finally starting to warm up, the kids brought the bug catcher back out and sat it on the porch. I let them continue to believe that this pupa survived the winter and was still undergoing metamorphosis. I didn't want to break their little hearts by telling them that their caterpillar probably didn't survive for seven months outside in the cold.

But apparently the joke was on me.

Meet Catty.

Xander was outside playing one May afternoon and came running in shouting that Catty turned into a butterfly. It was a gorgeous butterfly at that. And the odd thing was that Xander had brought home a butterfly book that day for his reading homework.

The kids wanted to keep it, but we had to explain to them that it needed to be free, so we opened up the door and watched it for awhile.

Catty seemed to have trouble finding his way out, so Jason found a thick piece of mulch for him to hop up on and we brought him out of the bug catcher where he made his way down to the flower bed next to our lilac bush.

He stayed there for quite a bit, flapping his little wings. We thought he was learning to fly, but after a quick internet search I discovered it's how they dry off their wings after first emerging. And then he must have gotten tired of two little kids ogling him and breathing on him, and he flew away.

I hate being wrong, but I'm so glad my kids got to have faith in nature and see that some things are worth the wait.