It was a morning just like any other. My daughter and I were getting ready for daycare and work. We were doing the regular things we did to get out the door and into the car. As we would leave our shoes outside in the atrium of our house, I opened the door and Margareta waited as I got her Dora the Explorer shoes to put on. After I put them on, she complained that the toes hurt on one of her feet. So I took the shoe off, and stuck my fingers in to see if anything was inside.

When my fingers reached the toe, it was cold and wet and squishy. My first reaction was to get my hand out as quick as possible. As I looked at my fingers when they came out of the shoe, they had greenish goo on them. What the heck was IN there, I thought? I hesitatingly reached back in again to try to get out whatever it was.

Sadly, when I pulled it out, it turned out that a friendly black fuzzy caterpillar had thought that Margareta’s Dora shoe was a nice, warm refuge for the night. Margareta, who loved animals, was very sad that the caterpillar had gotten squished to death. We buried the caterpillar, cleaned her shoe, and then got going once again.

It was probably about a week before Margareta stopped asking me to check her shoes for caterpillars every time we put them on.

Submitted by Maria Kubitz in loving memory of Margareta Kubitz.