I thought it would be an ordinary afternoon in an ordinary week.

My mother wasn’t at the bus stop, so I walked home by a beaten path in the woods. As I grumbled to nobody in particular about school, I happened to pass a strange plant, which I recognized as milkweed. I knelt by the plant, and looked through its leaves. Just hoping.

"Yes!" I shouted. For there, on the small leaf, was a tiny, centimeter long caterpillar.

I took him home to my mom and dad. Dad and I had recently attended a monarch program, and so we identified it as a day old monarch caterpillar. Neither of us thought there was much of a chance of him surviving. Besides, if he did live, what would happen to monarch who is supposed to be in Mexico, in a Pennsylvanian November?

That week, we fed him a leaf a day, and researched the care of monarchs. We found out, that since the monarch caterpillars only ate milkweed, and since the fields of milkweed were dug up for more houses, the monarchs were in danger of being written on a long list of endangered species.

As the days went by, he grew and shed his skin. He began to eat more, and more. We had problems finding leaves after the frost.

Then, one morning I checked on him and he had made a bed of silk on the side of the jar, and was suspended by only two back legs. He was in a "j" shape. He hung there for three days. Dad thought he had died.

The afternoon of the fourth day I checked on him.

"Mom! Dad!" I hollered down the stairs.

"He shed his last skin!" For there, in place of a caterpillar, was a neon green chrysalis. There were a few gold spots on him too.

Fifteen more days passed as we waited. He was supposed to emerge in seven to ten days, so dad thought again, he had died.

On Sunday, November the 7th we realized the chrysalis was black, then clear. We could see his beautiful orange wings. After the chrysalis turns clear, he is to emerge soon. I stayed with him from 7:00 to 9:00, only going down stairs to read the comics. When I came up, he was already out of the chrysalis, and resting. Mom and dad came to see this magnificent event. His belly was full of fluid, and he was pumping that fluid into his wings.

The following day, I mixed up honey and water to make a paste, which butterflies loved. Then I made arrangements to ship him to Mexico.

Mr. Bill Siegel, one of my dad’s friends, was going to San Diego, and offered to take the monarch with him.

Monday night, dad and I put him in a wax envelope, then in the fridge. Then, we went to his house. I tried to think of a name all the way. Dad suggested Reginald (A King meaning he was the last monarch, so he was king), and Rex (meaning the same thing). I searched my head for ideas.

Finally the time came.

I got it! I would name him Black Starr. I explained to dad.

"His body is black, with white stars on it. Besides, the mark on his wing is black, meaning he is a boy."

At 3:00am, they left. The whole trip was twelve hours long. Mr. Siegel told me Black Starr was released in San Diego, in a park full of flowers and flew away.

He was a miracle since he was laid so late, that if I had not found him, he would have perished by either starvation, or the first frost.

Next summer, Dad and I are going to raise more monarchs in a netted cage outside. We’ll plant milkweed inside it.

I also want to write a children’s book on this, and try to get it published.

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