Creeksong

The nice big dragon looks a bit befuddled. Had it taken an unplanned bath? :o)

When I put dragonfly repair in my Facebook bio, I was only referring to past experience, not posting an ad for more patients. The cosmos has a way of taking us up on our desire to be of assistance, though. When I arrived home today, this guy was was just waiting for me in the street. Normally I would just say hi, beautiful, and walk on. But this guy was sitting right in a spot where he would get run over when the next car came by, so I set down my stuff, and walked over to him, introduced myself, and asked him, What's up? Are you ok? I leaned down and offered my finger. He crawled on, and just sat there staring at me. "Ok, let's take a picture. This is pretty cool" I grabbed the camera case back up, and headed up the two flights of stairs to the house, to take the camera out and see if he would stick. When we got there, I needed to put him into my left hand, because the camera is only right handed. I put him down for a minute, in the big pot with the Angels Trumpet, to negotiate the camera bag. He started to fly, and then just went upside down. I reached in and righted him, and he just went upside down again. Vertigo huh? No wonder you were just sitting in the street. I grabbed up the camera, and the dragonfly and took several shots, before putting him back down in the pot. His wings made a loud sound as they beat against the side of the plastic pot. One of the cats, came to investigate, and expressed interest in eating him. I ran the cat off, and, deciding that leaving him in the pot would be bad for his health, I picked him up again, and cupped my hands so he would stay in there, without getting hurt, and headed back down the stairs. When I got to the bottom, I opened my hands, slightly, and asked him if he was all right. He took the opportunity to escape, thinking that I had trapped him. He still couldn't fly, and went upside down again, and landed on the stair lift track, his wings still beating, and now making a loud sound on the aluminum. What a world! The other cat came running up. A meal? I shooed her away, and scooped up my new friend, again, and took him across the street, about forty feet from the cat. A safe place to put him down, I thought. I opened my hand, and offered the ground. He just sat on my finger again. It's dangerous to hang out with me, I said, and and picked up a piece of bark, inserting it, gently, between him, and my finger, and put him on the ground. He didn't try to move. I could tell he was still dizzy, but i couldn't think of any way to help him. Maybe he's dying, I thought. There's probably nothing I can do about it. I checked his wings again to make sure they were true, and flightworthy. I knew from my past experiences with dragonflies, how they needed to look in order to work right. They were perfect. Sometimes there isn't too much you can do for a patient, except keep them from getting run over, or eaten by a cat. The world can be so brutal. I came back in about fifteen minutes to check on him, but he was gone. Dragonflies, never stick around long, to say thank you, after they can fly again. I don't need thank you's. Just the opportunity to be of service is fulfilling enough. And besides. Dragonflies like to taunt people, and don't often consent to hang out on a finger. Although I was honored by his visit, i still felt bad that I couldn't have helped more. A hat tip to the animals who trust me.

Thank you.

Thanks for the nice comment, Marco.