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OUR HAIRY HOUSEGUEST AND HIS FAMOUS FRIENDS

We have a house guest! He’s got thick black hair and loves to eat… No, it’s not Elvis, it’s SPENCER! He’s our neighbors’ caterpillar! Caterpillars don’t really like to travel in cars at speeds up to 65 mph and although they won’t tell you, they get a little carsick. The family thought it best if Spencer sat out this trip!

I didn’t want to irritate him by sticking the camera in his face too much, so I got a close up shot elsewhere so you may almost see how handsome he is.

Handsome devil!

Here are a few cool things about Spencer. He’s black with barely noticeable streaks of orange. He lives on wood chips and soil, with a seaweed tree, and loves to eat leafy vegetables. If you feed him lettuce, he poops green. If you feed him red cabbage, he poops pink! It’s pretty much in one end out the other with him. I hear he’s nocturnal, but fortunately, he’s not very loud so besides the crunch of the lettuce leaves I don’t think he’ll disrupt our sleep.

Our first night we wanted to make sure he felt welcome so we wrapped him in Lauren’s blankets.

See him next to his lettuce?

Lauren read to him. His favorite page had a picture of his cousin the inchworm on it.

Spencer was smiling so big!

We talked to him about what it felt like to be a caterpillar, if the things we’d learned along the way were true. Were caterpillar’s chronically hungry? I’m now envisioning a rainbow of caterpillar poop as he progresses.

A whole new rainbow of foods!

Did all caterpillar’s lives revolve around becoming big beautiful butterflies? They think Spencer will turn into a beautiful moth!

Heimlich is one of my favorites!
(C) Disney/Pixar

With recent news on the effects of smoking or second-hand smoke on caterpillars, do they still feel the need to smoke while emitting short puffs of insults and riddles?

Whooo Rrrrr Yooooou?
(C) Disney

Perhaps he’s still warming up to us as he didn’t really answer one way or the other. Carson enjoyed having a sleepover.

Sawing logs and eating leaves

OK, kidding, considering their size difference and the violent nature of Carson’s sleeping positions, Spencer felt more at home on the highest bookshelf among the natural rocks, fossils, and gemstones and away from cats.

Protected in his element

We hope Spencer has sweet dreams of more adventures tomorrow!

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8 Comments

      1. You are very welcome! 🙂 I see you all love the cartoons as well. I do enjoy them too! Isn’t it great how much we and our kids learn about these gorgeous critters when we find them, because then it’s time for Google or a book to see what they are, where they come from and what they eat. LOL! I do so enjoy that and am learning every day about all nature around us. And then I find blogs like yours and the journeys gets just more exciting! You have such beautiful kiddies! I love how you all are protecting Spencer. So sweet! 🙂 Thanks again for sharing. 🙂
        *hugs*

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