Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails: An Update on the Ladybug

There are two qualities about my Franny girl that are combining to really keep us on our toes.  First, she has an amazing capacity for finding things.  I posted a few months ago about her knack for spotting and collecting tiny "treasures" anywhere we go.  I don't know how she does it.  It doesn't matter where we go, if there's a lost marble or penny or other trinket, she'll gravitate to it almost immediately.

 Second, she continues to be endlessly fascinated with anything that moves or breathes.  It doesn't matter if it's a bunny or a roly-poly or a fish or a beetle or a puppy or a salamander. 

Well, you can imagine where I'm going with this.  In the past three weeks, she's found and captured a caterpillar, a salamander, a tiny millipede-looking bug (ew!), an inchworm, two turtles, a number of roly-polys, stinkbugs, and ladybugs, and a grasshopper (which she brought, unbeknownst to me, into the car and then accidentally let go.) 

Every one of them, she LOVES.  She will hold it in her hand, kiss it, and say (in the voice most people use to talk to babies), "Oh, sweet little cricket!  He's going to be my pet.  Looook at this beautiful little cricket.  Do you want to pet him?"  (See video with inchworm here.)

Anyway, I'm now going to tell a story we are calling, "Franny to the Rescue."  

Craig recently acquired a number of baby chickens, geese, ducks, and turkeys.  We are going to raise them on the farm, but we are keeping them under heat lamps in the garage until they get big enough.  On this particular day, the kids are with Nana and Papa, and Craig takes the birds out and lets them run around the yard while he cleans out their pens in the morning.  They all return to him, except the tiny baby turkeys, who have disappeared into the hedges.  

These hedges are THICK (the kids call them "the jungle.")  Craig cannot find the turkeys, and finally gives up.  I'm thinking, too bad Franny isn't here.  If anyone could find a tiny lost turkey, she could.  

That night I return home with the kids.  The turkeys have been out all day, and Craig has given them up for dead.  I start trimming the hedges.  Franny says, "Mom, I will help you find those turkeys."  She darts into the shrubbery, and less than a minute later calls out, "I found them!  I have them both."  And she comes tromping out with a turkey tucked under each arm.