Good Intentions

I know, I know, I talk about bugs all the time! Who would have thought they'd become such an integral part of my life? The other night I was up late answering e-mail. How pathetic is that? I can't even concentrate enough during the day to answer e-mail?
Nighttime is the only time the cat has any energy and she's usually poised next to the heating duct in the kitchen in hopes that those distant rustling noises from the crawl space turn out to be mice. The other night though, she left that post and was stalking a large beetle in the hallway. Sister beetle to the one that drown in Ken's coffee mug a few weeks back. It was big, but sluggish, so I decide to catch it and put it in the bug hut so my older son could see in the morning. I grab one of his plastic teacups (yes, my son has a tea set, and what of it?), and I put it over the insect while the cat looks on probably thinking, "hey, a teacup, why didn't I think of that?"
I come back with the bug hut, and this bug is so large it is literally pushing the tea cup over the floor. I slide some cardboard under the cup, scoop up the bug and deposit him in the bug hut.
For those of you without children a bug hut is a container that's basically made out of a screen with a sliding door on one end.
The next morning there was no large beetle in the bug hut, only a hole in the screen which my son noticed right away.
"Mommy, how'd that hole get in my bug hut?"
"Geez, honey, I don't know."
I put some duct tape over the hole and didn't mention beetle, now on the lam, somewhere in the house.
I found it later that same day, inside a damp towel. This time I didn't bother trying to keep it, or alert my son, I just hustled both the bug and the towel out the door.

song: good intentions • artist: Lyle Lovett