On Beagles and Butterflies

I was going to write this whole thing about how, when I was very little, I had a book whose cover featured a beagle with a butterfly on its nose, and from that moment on, my heart was on fire. I so desperately wanted a beagle! Of course, you know I eventually got one.*  Life dream realized! The apple of my eye!  Littlest Love, Littlest Only in Stature!

But when she died earlier this month, the morning after my father died – on opposite sides of the country, how cruel! – and when I got back the viewing window had fallen out the Ducati's front master cylinder (really!) – again, how cruel!  Well, the whole point of the thing was to be that soon thereafter, this butterfly (Yes! A butterfly! Just like the book!) came into my life, by way of a newly acquired milkweed plant – how strange! At least it will be a butterfly soon, I’m told, and it lives here with me now, and I’m waiting, waiting, waiting for it to happen.

Queen Butterfly larva (Danaus gilippus), currently in my safekeeping.

Yes, I was going to write a whole long thing about it all, but I can’t. I just can’t. What if it dies?

The Beagle Entries:

You met her here.

You saw her briefly here.

I worried and worried about her here.

Beagle in recovery here.

Here I worried and worried, again.
Caterpillar/Butterfly update.