Ian's heart, broken by a bug!

This evening, while Brady was grouting the bathroom floor, I was out front with Ian. A firefly flew into the yard so I caught it and we put it in Ian's little "bug house". When I did this, I informed Ian that he could observe the firefly for awhile, but we had to release it before we went to bed. So... little firefly was taken inside and promptly given the name "Fire". (Can you tell already that this is not going to have a happy ending?) Needless to say, the time came for us to let little Fire go and poor Ian just burst into tears. I haven't seen him this broken-hearted in a LONG time. I tried to reason with him, letting him know that Fire wouldn't want to stay with us, because he had his own little bug family to get back to. I tried reasoning that we didn't have the proper food. Ian insisted that he would find food and tomorrow we would go for a walk and find the rest of Fire's family so they could live in the house with us. When I told him we couldn't do that he countered with, "Please can't he just be a part of OUR family?!?" Brady and I both tried to reason with him, and we both talked until we were blue in the face, but nothing could help the fact that Ian, even in such a short span of time, LOVED that firefly. And when Fire was released Ian cried and cried, which almost made me cry! It tore me up to see him so distraught! It is so sweet that he is so tender-hearted and that he loves little critters so deeply. It is also sad, because I am one of those people that loves little critters deeply and I have spent many hours crying over them, so I know he will do the same. I just hope he understood that letting the little firefly go was the right thing to do. It was hard for him, but best for the bug. It's not a comfort to him now, but hopefully he'll eventually get it. I am not looking forward to the release of "Greenie"!