The girls have found our enigmatic green guest hard to resist, but even harder to play with, and the first night we caught Cleo in several attempts at trying to push the lid of the jar off to get more paws-on (and nose) time with the rather large Katydid.
Flop would just sit patiently with her nose pressed to the outside of the glass watching the lumbering movements, but Cleo wasn't happy unless she could get her nose right on it.
Karl and I arrived home Wednesday from his class to find the specimen sitting on the doorstep, somewhat tangled in cobweb in a corner of the door. He/she was hard to miss - that's how large it is. Karl freed it from the spiderwebbery and we decided to keep it inside for a bit to observe, and to simply marvel over its size. The cats, on the other hand, were keenly interested in playing! If Cleo could have put a saddle on it, I swear she would have ridden it around the house!
The next day Brian tried to turn it loose outdoors (after a romp with the girls) but several hours later, when I opened the door to get the mail, there it was again! It had made the journey back across the porch to our front door, where it perched.
K theorized that the warmth attracted it, despite the food source we endeavored to turn it loose on. I would have thought eating would have been higher on his priority least (or even mating), but apparently we have a rather alluring door. So, I gathered some items from the flowerbed for it to eat, crawl around in and feel a little more at home in, stuck it all in the jar (with the Kdid) and went about our daily activities. When we looked in on it later, it had eaten a good portion of a leaf and had become comfy pretending to blend in the rest of the 'decor.' Kind of cool!
Incidentally, I always thought critters like our Katydid met their moisture requirements while eating the greenery, BUT it turns out they actually go about gathering moisture all by itself, too. I know!
I watched my little green friend lap up all the rain mist from the new leaves without a break. The leaves were all damp when I stuck them into the jar, but after just a few short moments of careful and methodical turns, he had completely dried every surface of several leaves! It was amazing. Poor bugger must have been parched.
I feel badly that the temps have gotten so chilly lately, I guess this is why he prefers Casa Us over doing the normal buggy thing, and goodness knows I don't mind watching after it, but I am going to hate looking in that jar one day to find a dead bug.
Until that happens though, I guess we will just have some fun watching nature take a vacation.
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