Saw this little today, and i was reminded of this time when i was around 16, and a caterpillar fell down my shirt when i was walking in the evening. It was one of those furry ones that make you itch when you touch them, so a little while later, i had to run home cause i was 10 seconds from sticking my hand down my shirt in public so i could itch myself raw. I don't know exactly why, but i believe i was fully aware that i was itchy because of a bug, and also that that bug might still be on my body (i  was right, it was). I immediately hopped in the shower, hysterical with laughter, and tried really hard not to itch myself till i bled, not particularly successfully, and by the time i came out, the culprit was crawling out of the bottoms of my pants. Somehow, the little critter had managed to survive the fall into my bra, and even to fall down that waistband and into the pair of jeans that my shirt was tucked into, walking right out the other end with what looked like absolutely no damage. I can't say that i found the little particularly antagonizing, i didn't blame the thing one bit - it was just a bug after all - but even though i had decided that i would leave it outside as soon as i was fully dressed, i managed to step on it when i was in the process of dressing, effectively enacting fate on something that had escaped death once before. Luckily, my neighbors, who were doctors, had something to rub on my skin so that it would be less itchy, but it still took a good 10 days to completely go away, and much, much longer till i would walk under those trees again.

When i was a child, i was obsessed with bugs. I would catch them - in my hands, in little jars, in my dad's tennis ball containers, the bug net that my dad bought me as a part of a set that had its own plastic display case that you could raise pet bugs in, and such sorts. I'd say my favorite bugs when i was a child were fireflies and grasshoppers, ladybugs and bees, and of course, butterflies and moths. When i moved, I'd somehow managed to get even more into butterflies and moths. I once climbed over the railed corridor of my flat on the third floor and into the railed balcony of my neighbor's house, just to catch a butterfly while they weren't at home (made worse by the fact that i climbed back one handed with the butterfly in the other hand, and there being nothing below me but the ground three floors down). Eventually, i'd come to see ladybugs and grasshoppers again, though not as frequently as i had before. 

Surprisingly, i had met two new creatures that i hadn't met before - they were on rather opposite ends of a spectrum that consisted only of the two. One of them was mosquito babies, wandering in water, and the other one was crickets that hopped all along the walls of my grandfather's house when the night struck. The mosquito babies were a thing of interest for me as i'd taken so long just to figure out what the hell they were, but the crickets, the crickets were a thing of interest because they were the noisiest things i'd ever seen (at the time). I still love crickets, and have since heard that human-grade crickets (and chocolate covered crickets) are a thing. 

When i was in first grade, for my science fair display, i made an informational display board about different types of bugs, made of three whole sheets of cardboard. I used to periodically hunt for grasshoppers with disposable plastic glasses in long grass (not sure how safe that was or why my parents let me do it, but i still remember the feeling of their little feetsies on my hand when i closed the glass shut with it). I'd gotten so good at it that at one point, i could do it even in the night, going by where the sound was coming from (again, how safe was it really to be in tall grass in the night, and why did no one ever stop me). I'd also been bug hunting a few times by then, catching nameless things in the damp grass and putting them in my plastic display case till i got bored of them and released them all back to start over again (which usually took me about 15 minutes tops). 

I still think of bugs every now and then - those dragonflies that look so stick-like you wonder if they're even dragonflies, or the smell of fireflies might suddenly be in the air one day, even when they weren't. I've seen many butterflies - a few, after a few, after a few - in a never-ending string. I've seen roly-polys, though rarely, and silverfish (or at least what i assume them to be, and they scare the living daylights out of me), but what i miss most by far are the fireflies. Bright, and then dim, and bright yet again, with the distinct smell you get off your hands when you hold them for a little too long, and just their slowness and stillness and tired-boy charm. What can i say - i'm a sucker for a real cute bug.

With adoration, Raccoon.