The Dynamic Duo

We had a WBO at our house last night. Yes, that’s right a Weird Bug Occurrence.Every so often I sight a bug that makes me doubt all the parameters of my comfortable little world. Ya know? You think you are familiar with all of the objects in your territory; the cats, the grass, the occasional stray dog, rain, wind, sun, lady bugs, beetles and stinkbugs, curly bugs, aphids, moths and butterflies. But THIS was a reallyweird bug.
It happened like this: Brenda, the old cat was outside in the rain, and I wanted to go to bed. I thought I would worry about her being outside in the rain all night, so I opened the door and called to her, sitting at the edge of the lawn, to “come in out of the rain.” This she was loathe to do, and I was thinking about ruining my socks to step down and pick her up when a loud whirring object flew past my face. You guessed it. It was the bug. Brenda, stepped inside after him.
Johnny was home for a few days and had retired to his room, so I hastened to draw him from his bed to share in the excitement. When we got back to the entry way, the bug was surrounded by three very curious cats, one of whom I suppose was responsible for knocking the bug on his back. We righted him (with a corner of the dustpan) so we could satisfy our scientific curiousity. I know I am being presumptuous in assuming gender here, but his weirdness and aggressive nature inclined me towards the male of the species. He was a singularly odd chap; about 2 inches long with a green/gray/brown striped shell. Probably some kind of beetle I think. He had rather odd tufty “feelers”, and judging from his entrance into our home, wings. “Hmm,” said Johnny intelligently, “I think I am going to call him Pedro.” And so saying, he scooped Pedro into the dustpan, opened the door and set him on the step.
Of course, as soon as the door opened, Brenda ran back outdoors into the rain. I went to fetch her back, and Pedro flew back in! This time, the dustpan scooping elicited a highly audible response; Pedro hissed or clicked or something. Anyway it was LOUD. We somehow has the feeling that Pedro was upset, so Johnny sympathetically put on a glove, shoved him back into his mode de transport, and this time threwPedro back outdoors. Brenda was allowed to remain outside in the rain for eternity if that was her desire, and we never saw Pedro again. At least not yet.
Another time, when I had only just begun working at the bank, we had a WBO. This thing was so large that at first we thought it was a bat or small bird. When it became clear that she (we’ll say that this interesting, attractive behemoth was female) belonged to the insect world, Bernie, my coworker was so freaked out that she closed herself into the vault until such time as “Ophelia” (I just now made that name up; we didn’t name her at the time) was removed from the premises. That was a long time ago, but I think I caught her in a jar to take home to show my kids; I do know that we later learned that Ophelia was a hummingbird moth.
Well, I’ve only been home a short while and I’ve gotta get away from this computer and spend some time outside….......You don’t suppose that Pedro is still lurking about….........Maybe I’ll bring the dustpan.

UltraMom