Sassy

This is the tragic, epic tale of Sassy, the pet cicada. My son, the one who liked weird pets, once had a pet cicada that he named Sassy. (This was before Hank.) My son's grandfather had caught Sassy and tied a string around her so she could fly, but not far. He gave her to my son. My son was about 4, I guess, and he LOVED that bug. He took her outside for exercise every day, and she lived in a jar in his room at night. She only lived with us for a short time for reasons you will learn shortly.

One day my son had taken Sassy outside for her exercise. He let her fly around for a bit and then reigned her back in, and then put her in a tree so she could climb around a little bit. I was inside the house.

Now to complete the story, I must tell you about our family cat, Jessica. Jessica was the best cat in the world, I loved that cat. But she was, at the end of the day, a cat. A cat who liked to catch things. A cat who liked to eat things.

Yes. Jessica saw Sassy up in the tree and jumped up there and ate poor Sassy, right in front of my son's eyes. He was horrified.

He came into the house screeching, "JESSICA ATE SASSY JESSICA ATE SASSY!!!" After I got him calmed down enough to actually understand what was going on, I had a hard time not laughing, but the poor kid was so upset at seeing his friend eaten before his very eyes.

There you have it. The tragical tale of Sassy the cicada. Now your day is complete.