Building on a Hobby with a Praying Mantis

Having a hobby can be more than just one hobby roll than 21. Recently, my son lost our cat. He didn’t actually lose her, she died. She was 21 1/2. He doesn’t have recollection of her before three years old, but of course, I have the smart phone video to prove it saved neatly on my YouTube channel, in unlisted mode. I have thousands of videos that he would never remember, including from the time he was a newborn.

Capturing memories on my smart phone has been something that is very dear to me since I’ve had my son in 2015, seven years ago.

Because I was trying to capture as many memories as I could, I really got fanatic about smart phone, photography, and video.

Switch stories for a moment, I have also had a cat in my life, since I am nine years old. Three of them in total over my lifetime. Most recently, in August of last year, my tuxedo, cat, patch, died. It made it especially difficult because I was very attached to her at 21 ½. Towards the end, she would just sleep under my bed and I would feed her next to my nightstand so she could go back under the bed. Having a pet for me was not the same with mobility issues. A cat needed hairballs cleaned up, especially a long-haired cat, which I never wanted again after my first main coon cat, patch was a short haired, domestic cat, and her companion, jazzy, passed away a few years ago at 15 years old. He had a cancerous tumor and had to be put down. It was incredibly sad, but I was fortunate to have patch in my life.

My son does not remember jazzy at all, but he does remember patch and loved her. She was his pet.

I didn’t want another pet right away, leaving some space for grieving, and I knew that I would not get another feline. It was just too difficult for me at this stage in my life to manage cat litter, hairballs, I swore I was done. Not with a pet, just with a cat.

When my son was watching a wild Kratts, episode about praying mantises, he was fixated on it, and wanted to watch it repeatedly. I researched how difficult it was to take care of a praying mantis, without telling him anything.

Fast-forward a few months, I was getting a shipment from California of two praying mantis nymphs. I ordered one, but they send two in a small container that comes within two or three days priority mail, filled with stuffing, and whatever wing this fruit flies live during the long trip.

When I thought of praying mantises, I have course thought of the green, big alien, looking, praying mantis, with his arms folded in a praying mantis style. These little things were nothing like I had envisioned, and we’re very delicate.

Shelby and Cobra (yes my car loving son named them) lived like royalty, and Sean cared for them and learned about being caring and delicate, we even took Shelby down to the shore with us on summer vacation.  Cobra had a bad molt and got entangled in his shell, and never survived. Shelby lived for a little over a month. They were Chinese praying mantises.

When both had passed on, I ordered the native Carolina species

Sandy and Tip were named after hurricane Sandy and typhoon tip, another obsession of my son‘s.  After tip molted, the smaller of the two, I never saw him again. I assumed that Sandy ate him up like softshell crab. Sandy is a rambunctious, hyper animal and hops and runs away if you try to hold it. These are very different than the first mantises.

So that’s the backstory of my praying, mantis saga, trying to find a pet and hobby for my son. He still not even eight years old, but I had a pet in my life for as long as I can remember. Having a hobby and a pet was part of who I was. And still am.

Only difference now, is that I am still a photographer with the love of capturing beauty, and stories that can last forever. With a praying mantis, the photography needs to be tight and close-up, macro photography being the need. my iPhone 13 pro does a pretty good job. I can even hand it  off to Sean to capture photos, and he really likes to get into the action. He knows how to crop he knows how to do some post editing. It is going to be something that he will use for a lifetime as long as we use, smart phone cameras.

Having a pet is the hobby that I choose. You may have a different hobby, in fact, I’m sure you do. You probably don’t have a praying mantis.

But whatever hobby, you have, immerse yourself, and learn everything you can about it because you never know where it will take you, and it opens up your world to build your mind and get better at it. It is very empowering to pull from resources that you have built, but never thought that you would use in the capacity you are using.

I build up my smart phone camera tricks every day, or hacks if you will. They get passed on to my son and he has a pretty cool story to tell his friends. His friends love that he has a praying mantis and they are wanting o come and visit him to see it.

I don’t have any idea how many more praying mantises I will order, but I do know that Sean will continue to have some kind of pet, that he can learn to build his photography skills with. I believe that, how to capture your world empowers you to look for the beauty in every day life. No matter how small it is. That is a big skill.