This isn't exactly a butterfly...

I have a pet wasp. It's as much of a pet as a pet can be without actually being able to pet it. (Think of fish here. Although, as a kid I definitely tried to pet my fish a few times. I had a marble molly that suffered the effects of being pet one too many times. But she ate her babies so I was a little mad at her anyway.)

So as not to sound completely whacko, let me explain. In the room that I use for all of my studying which, I guess, could be labeled my "study," the windows are the old roll-out kind. Except there is one particular window in my study that does not, in fact, roll out.

A few months ago, a red wasp found his way into the space between the two panes and the screen. (Why are wasps "he's"?) I can't open the window to let him fly out. The screen isn't the kind that is easy to remove from the inside. So the wasp has been stuck for a few months.

I've been wondering when he is ever going to die and join the rest of his bug friends at the bottom of the window sill. But this little guy has a serious will to live, apparently.

So I've been feeling sorry for him. I mean, that's stupid, right? I got stung by red wasps so many times during my childhood that I should just laugh a sinister laugh and watch him die slowly. But it's sad that they have such a short lifespan and that this wasp is forced to spend a vast majority of his life not being able to fly in open air and being forced to look at the exoskeletons of his dead friends.

Today I walked around the outside of my house, braved the overgrown holly bushes and tried to force open the window from the outside. I could only open it maybe an inch wide and I propped it open with a rock. The wasp still can't find his way out. I'm staring at him right now. I did all I can do. The rest is up to him.

Okay. So I am whacko.