It's spring and the caterpillars are out, everywhere. Earlier this week, when I got out of my car, I saw a black and yellow striped, hairy little guy on the pavement (I'll call him Skippy). I thought the parking lot of my building was an odd place for Skippy to be - all the major catastrophes that could have happened, I could have run over him plus, poor Skippy looked to be a pretty easy target for the local birds (crows, pigeons, starlings, robins, sparrows - the list of potential avian threats are massive for such a squiggly thing so out in the open). So, yes - I paused, thought for a moment about the oddity, and kept walking towards my building. After all, it was only a fifteen foot journey to the nearest tree and patch of ground - this was the thought, the last thought I had about Skippy, before I continued my stride.
About 5 hours later, I walked back to my car to head home (I wasn't feeling so great and felt like my bed needed company, conversely I desperately needed the solace of my comfy bed). Now I know you must be thinking one of three things happened as I walked to my car. "Oh my God, she stepped on poor Skippy!" or "She saw Skippy get run over or taken by a bird (sad face)" OR, dear lord - "Skippy was just plain dead on the pavement." Well, all three are wrong - Skippy was still on the pavement, arranged in a vertical position near the front of my car, and he looked like he was still alive. I just had no idea why he was still there. I doubt he was waiting for my eminent arrival. So, I looked at him, and thought - "I might run him over, maybe I should move him." So, being the diligent bug saver - I retrieved some paper from my car to scoop the little booger up. Skippy was not cooperating, every time the paper scooted towards his hairy mess, he squigled as best he could. Clearly Skippy wanted to be left alone, but I was now on a mission to get him out of my way.
Well, I did eventually get him scooped on to a sheet of "post it" (that had L-O-V-E spelled out in red letters on the top) - but then I didn't know where to put him (all of a sudden the patch of dirt didn't seem good enough - and he seemed a bit weak. I can only imagine what anyone who looked out the window and down the lot thought I was doing - bending to the ground and scratching it with paper - then dangling the paper in front of me in deep pensiveness. So, I did the natural thing - I put Skippy in the passenger seat to take him to some greener pastures, after all -pavement isn't the appropriate and natural place for a caterpillar to have it's last moments.
So, I parked my car in front of my house - picked him up from the driver's seat, and placed him under a huge leaf. I felt satisfied that we was now in a proper place. I haven't seen Skippy, so hopefully he regained his strength, found a tree and spun a cocoon.
Today as I walked to my car, I thought about the little caterpillar in the larger context of things. Mainly because I saw another random caterpillar on the pavement by my office (maybe they were siblings) - but he had been partially squashed, I was too late. So, I simply thought to myself, you can't save everything, you can't get to everything. But hopefully what you do get to, is able to flourish and transform into something that will fly. Even those things that seem weak when you get to them.
