Early Morning Rescue!

  At daybreak, it is my habit to take the old dog out for his morning walk.  As we walk (slowly due to his age and health), I watch critters.  The pace of our hike gives me ample time to photograph anything that catches my eye.  This morning, however, it was the dog, himself, that found a critter.  Mr. PJ sort of caused a major accident for a beautiful, yet delicate, creature.  As he was lumbering through the gate, he inadvertently knocked a butterfly from its perch.  Obviously, the creature had just come from its cocoon and was trying to stretch out and dry its wings.  Mr. PJ did not even notice.  He did a slow motion version of "hit and run".  The butterfly struggled to right itself.  It could not make the long three foot journey back to the gatepost so I knew I had to help.  Left on the ground, ants would have soon killed the lovely insect.  I gently slid my hand near the butterfly.  It had reservations, at first, but with a tiny bit of nudging, it climbed aboard for the "air-lift" to a nearby plant.  The butterfly immediately settled in on the begonia and started flexing its wings and I followed along behind old Mr. PJ.

  It was several hours later before I remembered the butterfly.  I decided to check on my new found friend just to assure myself that the old dog did not do major harm.  Mr. PJ is the type dog that would never intentionally harm anything so no blame could be put on him.  Happily, I was just in time to see the butterfly take flight!  Oh, happy day!  It did the heart good to think that perhaps a helping hand was all it took to save a life.

  The butterfly in question is none other than a Spicebush Swallowtail Butterfly.  This gorgeous creature is similar to another swallowtail, the Pipevine, but a few orange dots makes all the difference.  The Spicebush has two rows of dots, whereas, the Pipevine has a single row.  The mimicking coloration does a good job protecting the Spicebush!   The Pipevine is said to taste nasty to birds so they think twice about snatching the Spicebush thinking it may taste the same.