With our first blast of wintery weather rapidly heading our way, Lisa and I have been working to finish our fall outdoor work.
On Saturday, for example, we washed windows.
We had one of those bottles of detergent that you hook to your garden hose. You spray on the suds and then, after a few seconds, you rinse them off.
As we were wrapping up our house-hose job, we noticed a little green fellah hunkering down under one of the shutters near the corner of the house. Undoubtedly, he was trying to stay dry - I say he…might’ve been she - amidst the deluge that was coming down all around. He/she had been able to find a dry spot, protected from the man-made waterfall.
Once we noticed the bug, we took great pains not to disturb. Upon further examination, our green six legged friend looked to be a katydid (probably on holiday from his/her usual stay in the woods around our home).
Later, after we had finished our work and things around our house dried up, I notice the katydid was gone; flew away to rejoin the family in the forest.
Maybe it was my experience with the cricket and the grasshopper that I told you about last month, but it has always been my policy not to do harm to any little critter (unless, as a caveat, he/she wants to do harm to me or my family).
I think some of this policy was influenced by an edition of The Family Circus comic strip from my childhood.
I’m not a big fan of the ‘funny papers.’ Cartoon strips don’t entertain me the way they do for the other members of our household. But, The Family Circus does such a good job of capturing family life in suburban America, I’ve always made an effort to read the daily – or at least weekly – editions.
In this particular edition, Mr. Bug goes through his day of daily perils. I think this may or may not have included being inspected by the boys, Billy and Jeffy. I think he may have escaped capture by some animal and dodge a near-miss from being stepped on.
Whatever the case, in the punch-line – the final frame – Mr. Bug arrives home to a worried Mrs. Bug and Jr. Bug who comment they were so worried about him because he was arriving home from his work day so late.
Or put another way, bugs are people too!
That strip made a big impact. From that day forward, I could never get the image out of my mind of a cricket or spider or katydid needing to make it safely home to the family. If at all possible, I’ll take a stinkbug or lady bug (or whoever) outside. I notice the main character in the NBC show, A to Z, did the exact same thing in last week’s episode.
It’s the right thing to do. That way, he/she has a fighting chance make it back home to the family.
Honestly, I know it doesn’t really work that way… but I figure, why not play it safe?
JG
Originally posted 11/10/2014
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