What were you doing at 7am this morning? And me? That’s right, I was conducting a funeral for Sticky, the stick insect that the Little One rescued from our swimming pool 2 months ago.
I’d noticed that he stopped moving yesterday morning (not that he moved an awful lot when I was looking!) and by yesterday afternoon he had fallen off his branch and was lying on his back not moving. Now, I’m not a vet but I knew this was not a good sign.
The Little One noticed this morning and both girls were very upset. We had a long discussion about why animals (and people) have to die. And then the Little One said she wanted to have a funeral for him and bury him in the garden. The Big One was not keen. “Just put him in the bin!” was her response because she was too sad to go to the funeral. The Little One was adamant though – he was her pet and he needed a proper funeral.
So, we grabbed a spoon from the cutlery draw and went outside just as the sun was coming up.
The Little One chose a spot by his favourite bush (the one we took all his food from) and as we emptied his pot out so I could get him out, the Little One decided that the best thing to do was to put him on a leaf in the bush.
She then told Sticky that she would miss him very much, had a little cry and then we went back inside hand in hand.
“Night night Sticky” were her last words as we shut the door.
longamericanholiday 