"Dead Pet-itis"

On Saturday Grandma gave us 2 caterpillars in a jar from her friend's garden.

Yesterday we noticed one of them, the smaller one, was not only not moving but also just lying in the dirt in his jar, kind of on his side. We let him alone for the day, wanting to make sure.

But shortly after we first saw him and I suggested he was probably dead, DuckyBoy said "I'm sick. a Sore throat maybe. I get sick when a pet dies."

I realized he was, as the saying goes, "choked up." So I explained that feeling to him, that sadness that causes a tightening of the throat.

It makes me wonder how many other little feelings I take for granted that he doesn't understand!

Later on he was repeating to himself the same phrases we said to make ourselves feel a little better when Skinny died: "He lived a good, long life." "He was a fighter." "We loved him."

Fortunately, the other caterpillar has wound himself into his cocoon and is looking fine. (That's him, Cater, in this photo, pre-crysalis.)