The venomous, dreaded, frightful monster of the Japanese Maple Tree

The day started very normally.

Lisi and I weeded the Round About in front of Maggie’s house. It was very hot so we had to drink a lot of water. Lisi and i didn’t feel very well; in my mind it was because of the weather. Anyway, we worked until 11 a.m., then we started to cook lunch for our bosses, Dominga, the chair and Tucker.

After lunch the Landscape Committee planned the Round About at the barn. So basically, we wanted to drive with the plants to the Round About, but when i took the Japanese Maple to the truck, something stung me in my upper arm.

First i thought it was a bee or a wasp, but surprisingly it wasn’t. I looked for a nest and quickly i found something, but it had something like feeders or a fur. It was definitely not embedded in a nest. When we where guessing what it could be, Lisi said the word Caterpillar. Maggie started looking for furry Caterpillar on the Internet and she found a video and an article about that strange little animal called “Puss Caterpillar” and that guy is definitely not usually found in Maryland. When we read the article, i was shocked by the words “venomous”, “pain like you broke an arm” and “must go to the hospital".

But as we all know, not everything on the Internet is true. So what did we do? Maggie called some friends of hers and most didn’t know the animal, but then there was James Crawford the Native American gardener from Georgia. James knew it, because he also had been bitten by one and he said it was not that dangerous.

If i were to get red stripes on my arm, i should drive to the hospital immediately, but fortunately i didn’t. When a friend of Maggie’s, a nurse, called her back and said we shouldn’t worry, because it it’s not as dangerous as we thought, i was very soothed. Luckily, i cooled it immediately, so it didn’t hurt that much. This was what all treatments said to do — ice it.

After a few hours, Tucker came home and Maggie asked all of us, “So what should we do with the little monster? Should we kill it or save it?” Immediately i said: “ Of course we will save it.” Maggie was still not sure, but when Tucker agreed with me, she accepted the decision. As fast as i could i took the bucket with the Puss Caterpillar and put him outside on a tree and saved his valuable life.

Ps: Thanks Tucker for helping me save every life we can save ;).

-Sammy <3 08/14/19