Spider Stories and Dog Stories

The first spider story is actually from Tuesday evening.  We were sitting at the table when I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye.  Usually, that means a bug and it's usually a spider.  We try to get to them fast, otherwise they end up as beaglesnack!  Otter has a plastic bug jar with a lid, she's had it since she was very little.  She's her mother's daughter, bugs are fun and not scary.  Mostly.  However, this spider was definitely not in the Good Bug category!  I was pretty sure what it was as soon as I saw it just from the color and the way/speed it was moving, and I was able to get the bug jar over it so it couldn't escape but it took a little jiggling to get it to move back into the jar so I could get the lid on and we could check it more closely to identify it.  Good thing we did, because it was exactly what I thought it was: a Fiddleback, also known as a Brown Recluse Spider.  It went for a swim in the toilet, it's now somewhere floating with all 8 legs up in the septic tank.  We don't get many of them, but we do get them occasionally.  This one was fairly large, but it wasn't as large as I've seen them get to.

Safe spiders generally get relocated to one of the plants in the house, or sometimes they get put outside.  Maggie gets enough to eat, she doesn't need spiders!

The other spider story is from today.  When Otter and I were pulling into the driveway from our errand, there was a bright yellow spider rapidly attempting to make a web.  Between the top of the garage door and the El Camino!  It was going to be a big web, although the spider itself wasn't all that big.  He had high aspirations and big expectations!  But it was just breezy enough that he wasn't able to build his web, the last time we saw him he was rapidly climbing up towards the garage door top and I think he must have moved on because he wasn't out there when I went back out a little while later.

Froggy commented on how Frasier is a goofy dog.  Yes, he is.  The rest of the story is that we thought he had a tick, but it turned out to be a mole.  However, he let me take a pair of needle-nosed pliers to it and squish it a few times without even reacting!  Yet, he's afraid of the noise the soup pot was making on the stove last night.  I have one strange doggy, no doubt about it.