Life With Monarchs

This morning I missed watching one of my monarchs transform into its chrysalis.  When I shuffled into the kitchen this morning, he was the same as I left him last night: hanging upside down from a twig.  The one difference was that his little mouth parts were moving as if munching on an imaginary leaf.  Do caterpillars dream?

An hour letter I checked on him once more before walking out the door and to my amazement he was now a little jade capsule with gold trim.  I had totally missed the change.  I had absolutely no idea they could change that quickly.

I also learned that they can move quickly.  Returning home from work, I counted only three caterpillars on the milkweed plants I had potted indoors.  I was missing one.  I looked around at my feet, afraid that he had fallen and I had stepped on him.  Or maybe the dog had eaten him.  Thankfully, I found him on the underside of the kitchen table.