A different life!

One day I was watering the plants and spotted a furry, black caterpillar hanging on one of the plate stems.  I didn't think much of it and then a few days or weeks later, the kids were enjoying catching rolly pollys at preschool, so we got some bug catchers at the Dollar Tree and came home to look for friends.  I went back over to the plant, since i remembered seeing the caterpillar there, and now hung a cocoon!  Oh my gosh, so exciting!  So I cut the stem off and hung the cocoon in a mason jar on our counter.  A few days later we headed to Irvine for a night or two and when we got back and were unpacking, something made me think of the cocoon.  I glanced in and there was this large, black butterfly!  There was even blood still pooled at the bottom of the jar!  It must have just come out of the cocoon!  We took the stick and butterfly out front and set her down gently in the dirt.  She started shaking, I guess drying her wings, and we got to watch her for quite a few minutes.  Then we said we'd head in for dinner and check on her later and when we did, she was long gone.  But what an amazing thing to see.  We'll have to do this again next year!