critter day with devon

I went to pick up devon on sunday before i usually go to the uu church.  he was in the garden...there he stood "bammy, there is a dead bunny right here in the path." I hugged him as we both looked at it.  "What should we name it?, he asked.  we settle for scampper, however, he did not live up to his name.  Devon had already looked and knew it has been bitten by, he thought, a cat. Now devon is 8 and he was going to do the right thing. we must bury it.  He  ran for the shovel.  off to the side of the path he dug a hole and in went scamper. he covered him and then run up to the porch to get a cement statue of a cat.  this was to be the headstone.

now it was time for us to leave for my house.  we did have time to make it to church so i asked if he wanted to go.  "Bammy, i was just trying to get out of going to see houses with mom and dad, it is so boring for a kid", i laughed and said sometimes it is for grownups, too. 

when we arrived at the house, our friends had brought their oldest son over to do yard work for us.  they were busy talking and the son was already at work. their youngest decided he wanted to work, too. so he went into our garden to pick up papers and things greg had left around.  He found a box turtle.  he brought it over for devon.  oh, this was big...we now had it on the deck.  devon asked me for a cheese grilled sandwich and then would I come out onto the deck and "observe" max the turtle with him.  I asked "do you want to take notes?", "no", he said we will just "observe" and see what he will do.  Soon, the other lad who had brought the turtle found a large snail.  It was placed on the glass table.  we were now "observing" both.  who would come out of their shells frist and where would they go when they did.

well max the turtle was first. he headed for the house part of the deck. moved rather quickly we saw.  "who would win the race?, Bammy" he mused with me.  We thought the turtle would, i thought if he did not stop to eat the snail, i thought to myself.

we got side tracked on a lizard which he missed, when he looked up to see now snail.  snail was under the glass upside down.  devon decide he would put the snail on our jag which was parked just feet from the deck. 

he place snail on the trunk.  snail headed for the back window.  max in the mean time was headed for the kitchen door and closing in on the front of the deck which was near the garden where he had come from. 

by now devon in the car and has opened up the sunroof.  snail is fast approaching the opening. so devon give him a lift to the window screen.  soon i see only the half of him because he is leaning over the front window being held by his legs against the headliner as he is "observing" the descent of the snail going down onto the hood of the jag.

after it got to the middle of the hood, devon in quickly out of the car to see where he goes from the hood.
Ok now it is time for racing snail to come to the deck and be put on a pedistal of bricks where max the turtle is back in his shell and not moving.

greg came out and asked him if he would like to earn some money picking cabbage worms from the cabbage. Eyes light up and a quick "yes" pops out...so with small pail in hand, he heads for the gardern. 

he is out there happily busy finding the little beings, and counting as he goes. g is paying by the worm. Devon is up to 25 cents.  being the quick business man he is becoming he decides a penny a catapillar is not enough for the "hard" work he is doing. 

he comes onto the poarch to show off the amount he has and our friend dimas is telling to go show them to his wife.  she is sternly telling devon to not do this and dimas is laughing because he know she is not a friend to worms and catapillars.  I have not seen this type of enterchange with them before.  funny to see dimas so frisky.

soon the lure of money wanes as max is now out again and heading to the brick mound where the snail is.  there is only a small area between the bricks and the edge of the deck.  somehow i know max is going there and he is too big not to fall over unto the ground below.  sure enough he does go there and yeppers over he goes.  devon is right beside him.  he places him near the jag to see if he will go to the garden.  he doesn't.

devon decides to take back to the garden and places max in the cabbage patch. young dimas the worker son helps devon lift a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood which is devon's way for chasing lizards and what does he fiind? a snail village.  wow and we are into it now.  there are now 7 big snails on the deck with lizards coming right behind them.  the lizards thought are being house in a pail that devon has sprayed with water so they can not climb out.  thought this was clever.

soon we have a praying matis which in mantis size looks to be about 8 years in size. he too goes into a container.  oh, dear devon has found a centipede now to.  as if he has put out a magic wand critters are turning up faster and faster.

it is now 5 pm and time to go back home.  I am not sure where the snails went, the praying matis was let loose, the centipede goes with us. and we are heading to devon's house.

greg is taking young dimas home. so i talk with the p's for awhile.  when greg come back and we are leaving devon says to g, "time for my caterpillar money."  greg give him a dollar, devon says how about another, that was hard work...yes?  you guessed it..he got the other dollar.