Of Monarchs and Painted Ladies

   At the fair, there was a "Butterfly Tent" where you could go in and feed butterflies. There were Monarchs and Painted Ladies. I went through the tent, and when I was going out, I noticed that there was a monarch in the garbage. I asked the guy if I could take it, and he said yes. When the fair closes they let all the butterflies go. with that in mind, I made sure that I was there on the last day, in the evening, so that I could catch some of the butterflies. I arrived there a little late, because all the butterflies had already been let out. Refusing to lose heart, I went around in search of these insects, and caught four. Three painted ladies and one monarch.

   When I got home, I moved the butterflies into a net cage (I had put them into a paper bag).
Several nights ago, in the middle of the night, I was asleep, and I was awakened by the sound of something falling; it sounded like in had come from the bathroom or the other side of the room. It was probably my cat knocking something down. Anyways, I wasn't going to let anything force me out of bed in the middle of the night.
   Suddenly I jumped out of bed with the thought that my cat had knocked down the net cage with my butterflies in it! Sure enough, it was lying on the ground with my cat sniffing it. Worst of all, the bowl of nectar (Honey+Water) that I had in the cage had been spilled. It had gotten all over the monarch butterfly, and another small butterfly that I had caught that day.
   Sleep being still in my mind, I cleaned up the mess quickly, and jumped into bed. When I got up, I took the butterflies out of the net cage, and transferred them to different cage. The monarch was dying, as far as I could tell. I cleaned its wings, rubbing them gently with a wet Q-tip, until most of the stickiness had been removed. My efforts were unable to keep the monarch alive, but it did save a great specimen. I'll have a monarch to add to my collection, when I get around to pinning.