Loretta the Ladybug: a rescue!

I got into work at 8.45am this morning feeling cream crackered after going out to a Panic! At The Disco gig last night with Tom (which was ah-may-zing). As per usual I went to the sign-in sheet at reception but I got a surprise today when I saw a gorgeous spotty ladybug crawling between the sheets! I thought I had better move her as it was about to get really busy with lots of people signing in who might accidentally squish her, so I whipped out my P!ATD ticket stub which was still in my bag and scooped her up. The caretaker passed me on the stairs and probably thought I was completely bonkers holding this ticket out and walking really slowly...

I popped her on my desk, went to do something quickly and when I came back she was trying to crawl into my cup that I forgot to wash last night. As I didn't want her to drown in chocolate milk I carefully scooped her out again and went to wash my cup. When I came back she had disappeared :(

I wanted to name her Loretta so I hoped she would reappear later despite searching for her a little bit.

About half an hour later I was staring into space when I saw that something in my pen pot didn't look right... and there she was! I took the opportunity to grab a couple of pics:

 here she is close up: 

 and again scuttling away: 

She's reappeared a few more times, running around on my letter opener. She looks like she's having fun :)

Update: Loretta looked like she had a problem with her wing - the filmy folding wing under the red one was sticking out cnd she was trying to take off but couldn't. She disappeared for several hours. Then at 5pm, as I was about to leave, she appeared on my keyboard...

I didn't want to leave her if she couldn't fly away, so my boss watched me attempt to coax her into a little pot whilst laughing at me for being so attached to her! I took her home, where she met Tom - who is fascinated by insects! As she couldn't fly away from prey I didn't want to put her in the garden, where we have a lot of big bugs and wildlife, so she has a new home in dad's chilli plant, where she will guard against aphids!

Hope you enjoyed!

Ta-ta for now!

Swaf (and Loretta)

xxx