KCST 1: "Butterfly Godmothers: A True Story" by Jill (Winged Nugget)

As told by Jill (Winged Nugget)

In the fall of last year, Sarah, Claire, and I were finishing up a Garden Club meeting with our supervisor when—what have we here, chilling out on our carrot plants? A little caterpillar! Our supervisor thought he could be a monarch, but no, he was too vibrant green and black.

We took him down to one of the science teachers to see if she could identify him; she couldn’t, but she offered us the bug box that served as his home for weeks to follow. I did some research and found out that our little buddy was a black swallowtail caterpillar.

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/313165_288276427853466_100... (PICTURE ONE!)

Our little caterpillar mascot was soon dubbed Jean Claude, after a conversation that went a little like this:

“He only eats carrots leaves.”

“He's like, *french accent* hauh-hauh! I only eat zee finest baguettes—only my baguettes are carrot leaves!”

“I am Jean Claude, I only eat zee carrot leaves!”

“Oh my gosh, we should name him Jean Claude!”

“Should we?”

“Yeah, why not?”

“What if he turns out to be a girl?”

“Then we call her Jeanette Claudia!”

When he was hungry, he could shear off carrot leaf pieces like a pair of scissors! But one day, we were confused to see him clinging to the twig upside-down, tied there by a tiny thread, as if he were resting in a hammock, and not moving. The following day, we were shocked to see he had shed his skin and become a chrysalis!

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/556643_10150596231491403_5... (Foto Zwei!)

We had to glue his little butt back onto the twig a few times, because we accidentally knocked him off of it. But a greater issue, beyond the state of his rear end, soon had us worried.

Black swallowtails do not fly to warmer climates for the winter; they go into diapause—basically hibernation. While he overwintered in my garage, we wondered if he was still alive in there, especially as the weeks became months and more and more people told us he was dead.

Whether or not he was alive, Claire and I were going on vacation during spring break, and we decided to have Sarah chrysalis-sit while we were away. And huzzah! Despite all of our concerns and the nay-saying of others, Jean Claude emerged in all of his black swallowtail butterfly glory!

(Lucky us, he actually turned out to be a boy, so we didn’t need to call him Jeanette Claudia!)

After a few hours of getting his bearings on Sarah’s front porch, our little garden club mascot fluttered off into the world (actually, probably to her neighbor’s garden, which she referred to as a butterfly heaven!)

The three of us will always remember the near half-year we were butterfly godmothers.

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/537119_410801545600953_100...

(THE END!)