K loves animals and has a real affinity to anything fluffy, scaly or small. So this week the first bit of animal magic was a caterpillar (that I did originally write off as a maggot) found lost and lonely in the garden.
Fab little opportunity for some internet research, some consideration of location of the discovery and possible food sources, and a discussion on habitat. We think we have a cabbage moth caterpillar. We promptly ruined a perfectly lovely bit of tupperware and made our own pied-a-terre for our new family member, named (inexplicably) Custard.
Next up in the food chain was a nut hatch, looking extremely put out at having been taken for an unscheduled tour of the house by the top of the food chain - Stevie the cat.
I entered the bedroom armed with a pair of scissors as I thought we had a very screechy burglar and thankfully was able to rescue the little bird while Stevie went into a full on "Look what I got you" purr-fest of meowing, rubbing and showing me her tummy.
I wasn't sure whether any damage had been done by Stevie's enthusiastic game of 'keep moving I want to bat you until you die and then I shall tire of you and have a wash'. There are no winners here. Except the cat.
We built a rudimentary cat-proof shelter for the bird in the kitchen and dug worms, all of which were ignored by the hatchling, the lucky squirmers. After a few hours our sparky little nuthatch was pooing happily on the curtains and so, reassured that no lasting damage had been done, we released him back into the oak tree.
A happy ending.
And what of the caterpillar you ask? Custard, exhausted by the lavishing of daily love, attention and rhubarb leaves, turned himself into a cocoon. The boys' Nana happened across another one in the garden so we have a growing collection....
