Charlotte Has Left The Building ...Well, sort of.

My wonderful, beautiful spider, Charlotte (see below) has finally died. I wondered how long she'd live in the house. In the late fall we found her on the ground and, thinking her dead, I picked her up and brought her inside with some wooden tongs. While examining her up close and personal for about 10 minutes, darned if her legs didn't start to move and spread out. SHE WAS ALIVE! Naturally, I freaked out, made some sort of high-pitched squawking sound, soundly dropped her, then smacked myself in the face with the tongs. Eee-YEWWWW! I rather surprised myself, because I really did think I was over being squirmy about her; apparently that was only true while I had the door between us. In any case, my son and I put her in a little fishbowl, covered it with some screening, and fed her crickets until they died. She eventually stopped eating and went to spidey heaven -- or something. Here's hoping one just like her returns next summer.