Poppy the Butterfly

Poppy the butterfly is a red admiral butterfly that befriended Dan Southerland, executive editor of Radio Free Asia. The butterfly first showed up around July last year. It landed on his shoulder while he was taking a break from work by taking a walk outside with a colleague. Then it crawled over to his shirt collar and stayed there for awhile. That's when he decided to have this picture of himself taken with his new friend at a nearby MotoPhoto shop.



After that he "...decided to get the butterfly something to eat at the Smith & Wollensky steakhouse across the street."-washingtonpost.com. There the waitress offered the butterfly some strawberries. He didn't eat the strawberries but kept chilling with Dan until they were about to leave. Then the butterfly flew onto the blinds, where Dan's colleague was able to get him off with her ID card. The butterfly stayed on Dan even when he got into a cab. It stayed there until he got home 30 minutes later. After that Dan, his wife, and his daughter "...got the butterfly into the birdbath and brought him some chopped bananas and bright red and purple salvia from the garden."

The butterfly kept returning every day just to see Dan and kept landing on him gradually growing more and more brave by landing on his head. Dan even started coming home early enough so he could see the butterfly before it left for the night. Finally on August 15th, Poppy saw Dan one last time and flew up really high before leaving for migration. Dan hasn't seen Poppy since but he still remembers the time he spent in his garden with Poppy.

I wish I had a cool little butterfly friend that would come hangout with me every day after work. Make sure to read the full article here.