By Katie & Wendy
July 7, 1997
July 7, 1997 Today is such a beautiful day that we decided to "skip" our lessons and just go outside to enjoy the fresh air. Katie and I decided to take a walk down the street. Pretty soon we heard a little voice yelling for us. We turned around and looked up and it was the little neighbor girl. (Her name is Katie to!) Well the little neighbor girl wanted to show us her caterpillar that she had found while she had been walking with her mom. We were surprised and so excited to see that it was a Monarch caterpillar! We asked her where she had found it, and she pointed down the road towards a telephone pole. She told us she had found him on a plant by the pole. After looking at him for a while (neighbor) Katies mom had said we should take the caterpillar with us, since we were studying them. She saw that her 3 year old was just to rough with him and didn't know how to handle it. She told us to take him home and watch him change. We thanked her and promised Katie that we would have her come over when he was changing so that she could see what he was doing to. Then Katie and I walked down to the telephone pole that little Katie had pointed to. And what do you think we found? We found 4 more caterpillars! They were on the Milkweed plants eating away! Monarchs love milkweed; it's their favorite food. Here you can see a picture of what a Milkweed plant looks like. There are many different kinds of these plants, but this is the kind that we have around my house. Katie has also colored a picture of a Monarch caterpillar for you to see. It is in the Art Gallery. Since it was the end of the day, Katie had left shortly after our discovery of the caterpillar's. I decided to take a better look around after she had left. There is a lot of Milkweed around my house, so I was hoping to find more caterpillar's. And that is exactly what I did. I found 4 more caterpillar's; all Monarchs! I gathered them and on my way back into the house I stopped by the neighbors and gave the little boy one across the street, so that he could watch the metamorphosis up close. I also returned 1 to little Katie next door. I was sure that her mother would help her take good care of him. Then my little Katie would also take one home with her tomorrow night. I came home and immediately placed the caterpillar's in a 10 gallon aquarium with the screen top. I then placed several Milkweed plant leaves in there for them to eat. I think Katie will be as excited as I am when she see's them eat! Wow, you can actually see the leaf being chewed away while they munch. It is just like a cartoon! Now I think we can understand why they are called "eating machines!"