Cockroach Farming: A Fairytale

Above is one of my favorite pieces I completed as an undergrad. Here is the story of its creation:

In college I joined a cockroach farming club to make friends and ended up with a cockroach farm of my own in my apartment. Most people are pretty accepting of cockroach farms, but for some reason, my landlord was not. In an effort to fool him I disguised them as cats. Here is a  picture i have of our cockroach farm:

My college roommate (an avid cockroach farmer) thought a vase of fake flowers would  also counterbalance any evidence of a cockroach farm:

The flowers were insecure about being fake, so I let them tell people they were real. 

Unfortunately, cockroach farming was consuming most of my time. They needed fed, they needed to be let out and they always wanted to party:

After a wild night of partying with the with the cockroaches, I woke up one morning and realized I had completely forgot about my art homework due that day. My assignment was to make a pretty picture by scanning an object and combining it with a photograph on the computer.

I talked to the cockroaches for advice. They told me to use one of the flowers. Apparently, the flowers had been harassing them for weeks, but they were too afraid to tell me. They said the purple flower was the meanest of the bunch. I took him from the vase to be scanned:

Despite the flowers horrible attitude, he and his bunch scanned quite nicely:

I needed a photo to complete the project. Time was running out. Luckily one of the cockroaches had a picture of his childhood home. It was the place he grew up before the exterminators came and took him away from his family. He doesn't talk much about the incident and the photo was all he had:

At that moment I understood why I got into cockroach farming in the first place. Cockroaches are one of the most selfless yet misunderstood creatures on the planet. I was glad I could give a few the happy home.

Alas, I had no time to think. I quickly combined the photo and flower in photoshop, added a few effects, and scribbled over the image:

 the cockroaches were cheering me on the whole time:

 I finished the project with two seconds to go:

When I handed it in, the teacher loved it. I told her that I couldn't have done it without my cockroaches. We celebrated in style that night. The story of the selfless cockroaches reached the local news. Luckily the landlord was a big news junkie and saw the story. 

Now The cockroaches no longer have to pretend they are cats. I threw the fake flowers in the trash and they  are in a landfill far far away. Everyone lived happily ever after. THE END.