The (Not-So) Incredible Journey of Linguini The Tomato Hornworm

I was building a new raised bed by my Little Free Library...

...(which turned out very well, thankyouverymuch)...

... when THIS GUY suddenly appeared out of nowhere!

AUGH!!!!

Once I was done SCREAMING, I realized that 

a) this was a tomato hornworm,

and 

b) although a pest, they're actually quite pretty.

So I took the little guy into work.

The kids were fascinated, but none more than, uh, 

sedentary-challenged Mr. E.

I had recently started a punch-card reward/break system with Mr. E....

...(idea found on Pinterest, natch),

and he decided he'd like to spend his five minutes of reward time

playing with the newly christened "Linguini."

This turned out to be surprisingly effective;

the promise of five minutes' time playing with a cool-looking caterpillar

kept him on task better than anything else I've tried.

BUT...

I took Linguini home for the weekend, 

and put him on a tomato plant for a few light munches of fresh greens.

I went inside for just a sec to see which branches of a tomato plant were "suckers,"

and therefore good to feed to my pet hornworm,

but when I returned?

He

was 

GONE!


"Luinguiniiiiii!!!!" I called,

but sadly he did not return like some pup at the end of a Disney movie.

I'm not sure what I'm going to tell Mr. E.,

but I'm tying some yellow ribbons around my tomato plants...

...and I'm hoping this sign will help:

****   ***   ***

ETA:

Shameless promotion time!  I just added a new
Harry Potter receiving blanket to my Etsy store.  

Cool, huh?
It's a great addition to a Harry Potter nursery!