Little Miss Missy

As I went to get Bach, my turtle, from his play area outside I noticed that he'd made himself a little friend. Sitting on the top of his shell was a little lady bug who refused to fly off even after I'd picked him up, carried him inside and shown my family the cute image. Bach didn't really seem to notice her, he was sleepy and cold and wanted nothing more than to sit under his heat lamp and have some goldfish crackers to eat (yes, my turtle eats goldfish crackers). The little lady bug on the other hand seemed quite taken with Bach and loved to just crawl around on his shell and stick a couple of her legs up like she was surrendering. I thought it was adorable! I tried to take some pictures of it, but my camera apparently likes Bach more than the lady bug because while he always looked really clear and cute, the lady bug was a little red blob. Anyways, while I was gushing over the odd little friendship, Bach was getting frustrated about the fact that he was still cold, so I took the little lady bug, who I decided to name "Missy" off his shell so he could sleep and she could go and live outside where she belongs.

When I took her outside, though, I noticed she wasn't flying. I put her on my little tree so that maybe she could hop into the wind or something, but she stayed grounded. Naturally I was a little confused. When I was a kid and my little sister and I would catch lady bugs for pets (she was obsessed with them) we always had the problem of them flying away before we could really hold them. But Missy was going against the norm and, as I watched her more closely, I realized why.

Somehow, one of Missy's wings is busted. She can open one for flight, but the other one falls kinda limp to the side. So, instead of leaving her outside to be caught by a gust of wind, but unable to direct where she was going, I decided to keep her as a pet for as long as she survives.
So now I have little Missy, the gimpy lady bug in a little bug box with some fresh leaves (hopefully covered in little aphids) and a couple of water drops.
She seems happy at least, and she's pretty fun to watch. :)