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Saturday, September 25, 2010

Seduction Rides The Wings of Dragonflies

This post has nothing to do with seduction, just dragonflies. That song just happens into my head whenever I think of dragonflies. Anyways...

I saved a life. It was the life of a dragonfly, but a life all the same and I felt good about it. When I walked into the office, there was a glue trap sticking out of the trash can. The dragonfly was stuck to it. I assumed he was dead and headed over to my desk to get to work. About 45 minutes later, I heard a noise from the trash and realized the dragonfly was trying to fly. He was still alive!

Without even thinking twice, I grabbed scissors and cut out the piece of the trap that he was stuck to and headed outside. His legs and left wings were stuck so I cut the glue into two separate pieces, the one his legs was on and the one his wings were on. Holding the piece his wing was on, I slowly pulled the other piece until he was free from it. He didn't lose a single leg and I was worried that he might. The only thing left to un-stick were the tips of his left wings. I tried to keep them intact, but I have found a dragonfly's wings are paper-thin and as brittle as a dead leaf. He ended up losing the tips to those wings. 

I was worried that he wouldn't be able to fly. Being the empathetic person I am, he would have had a great home, complete with all he needed. Wouldn't that have been a surprise for Alex? Adult dragonflies only live for about a month so we wouldn't have been care-taking long. However, the little guy was a trooper. We had a few test runs on the patio. He hovered pretty well, had a little issue with direction, but I assessed there was no reason to keep him from the wild. I sat him on a column facing the vegetative area by the river. He took off, faltered, then hovered. At that point, he was beyond my reach and there was nothing I could do. I went back inside. I think he'll be fine. At least he won't die by slowly starving to death. So that totally made me happy.

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