I Was Too Late

   I try to rescue as many critters as I can whether they be domesticated (throwaway pets) or wild.  I will go out of my way to gather up an injured or lost animal.  All of our pets have been ones that others have tossed out car windows or were going to kill because they did not want them any more.  As for wild critters, I just recently saved a cicada from ants but, in the past,  baby mockingbirds from dogs, a catfish from being stranded in a puddle and newborn skinks from flood waters.  The skinks were most likely my most dramatic rescue as that was done during the midst of a tropical storm.   All in all, rescuing critters is pretty satisfying.  You just feel good helping.

  This morning, however, that rescue did not happen.  As usual, I was up before dawn and down on the pier awaiting the sunrise.  As soon as the sky started to lighten in the east, a fluttering in the water caught my eye. Something was struggling to keep from drowning.  Oh, wow!  Time to drop the camera and help a friend in need.  Grabbing a long pole, I tried to gently lift a beautiful swallowtail butterfly from the water.  It took a few tries as the insect kept slipping off of the pole.  Finally, I had it!  Whew!  That was tricky.  

  The butterfly was hauled up to shore and placed on a pier pole that had washed in on the hurricane.  The sweet thing needed to dry out and rest a bit.  The warm sunshine would help it greatly.  Sad to say, the butterfly perished.  I was not on the pier soon enough to save it.  It obviously had met with some predator as its wings were tattered.  Poor thing!  I hate when rescues just do not work out as planned.