Mi Mascota

KC, our 19 year old cat died 3 days before we started our full-time RVing adventure back in 2001.  Although we had rented our house to a young couple who would live there for the year (yes, we thought we'd be traveling for one year) we'd be gone and they'd take care of KC, I think she knew something was up and she didn't want any part of it.  So, Kylie and Jimmy never had to feed KC, take her to the vet or let her sit on their lap of an evening (not that she'd have allowed that anyway), she had a stroke and died 3 days before we rolled out of the driveway.

So...  since that time, we've never had a pet.  Our life style really would be a cruel life for a pet...  we're gone for hours at a time...  we leave the country for months at a time...  it just wouldn't be right.

Sunday morning, on my way to 7:00 mass I saw this beetle on the sidewalk...  

He was on his back...  doing that swimming kind of things with his legs.  I flipped him over and headed on to church.

An hour later, on my way home he was still there.  Nobody had squashed him flat...  I figured he was on his last legs (?).... scooped him up and headed on home.

Entomology was one of my very favorite classes when I was in the Recreation and Wildlife program at our local community college.  I don't know what it is about insects, but I want to know what family they are in...  where they live...  all that stuff.  Hey, if Bill can do genealogy about humans, I can sort out the insects or birds or whatever.

I brought him (?) home, put him in a Tupperware container, figuring he would die very soon and I'd have a great specimen.  I knew he was a Rhinoceros Beetle...  just look at that "horn" proboscis....  but when I Googled him, I found that in some of the Oriental countries they keep these guys for pets.

He's Huge....  over 4" in length.

These guys don't sting, they don't bite...  whoohooo!  The perfect pet!

Come Monday morning he's still alive...  Okay...  time to make a decision.  Keep him in the Tupperware or turn him loose.  I let him loose....  hoping he'd stay around a while.  That might have been the right decision...  however....

The lawn maintenance people (man, wife, 3 or 4 year old child) came on Monday morning.  They are raking, pruning...  doing all the things they are supposed to do.  I was inside... forgot about my little Rhino friend out on the patio.  Darned if the woman didn't spot Rhino...  smack him with her broom (intent to kill) as she's sweeping off grass clippings...  and she hit him so hard she broke his "horn" off.  Bill was outside, saw what was happening and stopped her...  told her Rhino was my mascota.

Her young son was determined to finish the critter off, but we intervened.

They finished the yard work...  Rhino disappeared somewhere in the yard...  until today.

He reappeared in the grass....  we've kept an eye on him.   But, either his life span was naturally over or losing his "horn" was the fatal blow, I don't know.  Mi mascota es muerto.

Guess we're back to being a "petless" family...  unless you want to include all the geckos that climb all over our walls all night...  but truth is, I enjoyed having Rhino as a member of our household in the short time he/she resided here.

That's All For Today!