The Very Hurty Caterpillar

I don't know if I've mentioned it this year, but for the last month of so we've been dealing with the masses of black, spiky, creepy caterpillars that seem to be an unavoidable part of spring in this area. Well, we'd heard that they could sting and have tried to be cautious, but with the caterpillars everywhere and the girls everywhere, this week the seemingly inevitable happened, and we found out that yes, they do in fact sting and it apparently is pretty painful. LL kicked off her flip flops and walked across the patio, and about a minute after the noticed a big caterpillar on the ground she started crying and grabbing her foot. Turns out she noticed the caterpillar because she'd just stepped on it, and it was not happy about that. Look at this! It left a wicked impression several inches long...dozens of tiny little pricks from its poisonous fuzzy back that show no signs of fading even after 3 days. Thankfully it doesn't seem to hurt her anymore, but I have a feeling she'll think twice before running around barefoot out there again soon. Or maybe not...she's two and a half, after all! But I'll think about it, anyway!