I found a ladybird in the bathroom that seemed intent on killing itself.

 

 

I suppose it was my fault. I had found it very cute and had tried to take a zillion photos of it. The orange focus assist light, blinking on and off nonstop, must have scared it.

It was hard to focus on it because it wouldn’t stop crawling around on the ornamental plant it was on. My camera kept wanting to focus on the endless leaf sprouts instead. So I kept trying and trying, as I followed the stupid gallivanting ladybird with my camera.

 

 

After this went on a few hundred times, the ladybird finally jumped off the plant and crawled around the window sill on which the plant was sitting.

Next to the plant, I had a lit tea light candle.

The ladybird started crawling towards it and then went up the side of it.

I yelped in fear for it. If it had kept on going, it could have fallen into the melted wax or gotten burnt by the flame.

I grabbed the nearest thin object I could find, which turned out to be my electric toothbrush head, and brushed the ladybird off the tea light. (Using the cap side, not the brush side!)

Then it crawled confusedly up and down the window sill for a couple of minutes.

 

 

It was still hard to get a focus on it because it never once stopped moving, so I turned on the camera flash, which probably startled it even more.

Finally it stopped moving and started puffing its wings.

“Oh no,” I thought, “It’s going to fly!”

Beside the window is the bath tub, which at that point was filled with very hot and foamy bathwater, waiting for my bathing pleasure whenever I was done paparazzing a ladybird.

The moment the ladybird took off from the window, it went straight at the bathtub and then dived in headfirst.

I shrieked again out of fear for it. I thought it was dead for sure, either drowned or boiled. It had disappeared under the foam and I couldn’t see it.

Quickly, I fished into the water for it and finally caught it in my cupped hands after several tries.

It was still alive, miraculously.

Fearing another suicidal incident, I opened the window and let it fly out into the night, never to be seen again.

So sad.

It was such a cute ladybird, too. Thought I could have had it as a pet.