Princess absolutely loves all animals and most insects. She learned to be afraid of spiders from watching me, otherwise she would probably love spiders too.
A few months ago we happened to find a cute show on PBS called Wild Kratt's. The idea of the show, is that two brothers, the Kratt's, are environmentalists and save all sorts of endangered creatures from people who want to use them in fashion, cooking and some guy who wants to make them into robots. In their attempts to save the animals, they throw in some educational facts about the animals or their habitats. It's cute and educational.
We watched an episode about earthworms and why they come up to the surface when it rains. Evidently, even adults can learn a thing or two, because I thought it was because they would drown in the water. Well, they don't. They just come up out of the ground because the surface is now wet enough, they can eat things on the surface without drying out. Near the end of the show, kids were running around after a rainstorm, collecting worms and throwing them into the grass (they were supposed to set them down gently), so they wouldn't get caught on the sidewalks and dry out.
Another interesting fact is that worms sense vibrations caused by moles and other ground diggers. When they feel the digging vibration, they go to the surface to avoid being eaten. When you see Robins pecking the ground, they are causing similar vibrations that move the worms up towards the surface.
The Wild Kratt's show failed to educate us on one other thing that causes vibrations...lawnmowers.
Most days, on our walks to Princess' school, the sprinklers cause the worms to come to the surface and the worms end up on the sidewalks. Much of our normal routine now has become Princess and I picking up these worms and tossing them back into the grass.
We made it past the first round of worms and progressed onto the park area, just before her school. This area is a major earthworm gauntlet. Grass on both sides, creates a virtual landmine area of dead and dying worms. Today was no different in this respect, we tossed the living worms into the grassy area and tried to avoid stepping on the dried up worms.
It was different however, with the reason why the worms had ventured onto the pavement. The landscapers had arrived and were mowing the park's grass. Here we come as nature lovers, tree-huggers, whatever you want to call us, launching these poor worms back into the grass they were so desperately trying to escape from, just to be shredded by lawnmower blades. Yay, compassion!
Fortunately, Princess didn't put the two things together and went to school feeling good about her rescue efforts. I'm having an internal battle, between feeling sad, that I sentenced worms that managed to escape to die a horrible death, and absolute laughter at the irony of the entire situation.
By the way, don't let your kids watch that episode if you plan to take them fishing in the near future. I'll share that story another day.
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