I Am A Cricket's Hero

OK, last one, I promise. Hey, at least it's from Sept of THIS year...

Yeah, so um, I'm actually getting cleaning done and as I'm moving some stuff something big and black jumps.

Up until now I have let the little buggers live in the garage in peace, even smiling at them as I saw them, 'cause although they annoy my husband I think they sound pretty.

But that was before this afternoon.

So yeah, it jumps and scurries under a hairbrush. (It's got talent, I'll give it that.) So, keeping an eye on it to be sure it doesn't move, I inch to the kitchen. Now the big dilemma... The little blue bowl that I can see through but use, or the dark bowl I can't see through but never found the lid for and could throw out?

Dark bowl won.

SO, the initial capture goes quite smoothly. It stayed in place as I knocked the hairbrush away by throwing something at it (don't remember what, blocking parts of this out...) and even let me put the small, not too deep circular bowl over it. And a very large kiddie flashlight on top of that! And then...

I didn't know what to do next.

So I did the dishes.

And I swear I heard the tick tick of it jumping against the bowl.

Or maybe that was the clock.

At any rate I decided that I need to do something because either I would go insane waiting for it to jump out or one of the kids would inevitably knock it over. True, Ricky would love the snack, but it was getting close to dinner.

I dug around in the kids desk and found a pad of construction paper. I ripped off the cardboard back and make my way over. Ever so carefully I took off the flashlight, then immediately clamped down the bowl. Keeping my hand on it as tight as possible, I forced the cardboard slooooowly underneath, constantly checking the rim for an opening.

Success!!!

OK, so now the tricky part.

I practiced lifting the cardboard while keeping my hand on the bowl, which is easier said than done. I mean, if you don't hold the bottom tight enough a gap formed. I was NOT going to let this bugger escape now!! So I finally came up with the perfect 1-hand-directly-under-the-bowl-1-hand-firmly-on-the-bowl solution. YES! Now all I have to do is open up the screen door and the critter can go free!!!!

There was a gate up in front of the screen door.

Sigh.

Your big toe is an amazing thing. With it I managed to loosen the "lock" by poking it through the holes in the gate, and then I hooked it (my toe) around one of the holes and lifted/dragged the gate out.

It's only a matter of time before my son figures out how to do this.

So finally, FINALLY I manage to open the door, walk out to the deck, and lifted the bowl. The poor thing just sat on the cardboard for a bit, then hopped off to find his or her family. It did leave a little leg on the cardboard for me to remember it by; alas, it went with the bowl into the garbage.

So tonight, when you hear the crickets, they will be singing my praises as a grand friend to all crickets. One who loves her fellow critters so much she devoted about 8 minutes of her time to rescuing them. One who sacrifices innocent bowls and pieces of cardboard so that they may be safe...

Next time I use my husband's boot.

**** Side note: 4 days after this I found the cover to the dang bowl.... ****