George the Caterpillar

A couple of weeks ago, we were helping weed at my parents house and Hans and Wyatt found this cool looking black caterpillar, with yellow and white stripes on it.  Wyatt and I decided we wanted to bring it home for a pet and watch it metomorphosize.    We have not been disappointed.  George had a really yummy diet of milkweed and some other plant that he was eating when we found him.  He started to hang upside down for a day and then the next thing we knew, literally within an hour, he was in his cocoon!  It was May 9 in the afternoon.  In the first picture, his cocoon is bright green and his skin is all bunched up at the top.  We've had caterpillars before, but this one was different.  He was bright green for about one and a half weeks, then this morning, it turned black.  When Wyatt, Scotty and I were leaving for swimming lessons, we looked in there, and there was George! Out in his full beautiful glory!!  We don't have a butterfly pavilion and the bug catcher he was in was not tall enough or wide enough to let him stretch his wings.  After looking around the kitchen for something, we decided my Pampered Chef juice mixer/pitcher thing would have to do.  I opened up the bug catcher and let him walk on my hand, to put him gently in his new home!! This is such a cool thing to do as a family! I highly recommend it to anyone.    We'll keep him in there for a couple of days and then let him go outside.  WE LOVE BUTTERFLYS!!!!