About a week ago, we were coming home from an evening out, standing on our front porch. As we jiggled the front door open, a flash of something caught my eye. I gasped as I watched a large spider scurry up a web it had constructed right over our porch light.
For those of you who don't know, I've always been freaked out by spiders ever since I was a kid. The unlucky arachnid that managed to wander in the house immediately got squished. This one was a big 'un about 1/2 inch long. I've shuddered at smaller.
"Spider!" I told John, pointing up at our squatter.
"Where? Oh...whoa. Big one!" he replied. "I'll get the Raid."
"Wait." Something inside me didn't want it to die. I had listened to a podcast recently about a woman who loved and studied spiders and waxed poetic about the spiders in her garden. I remember people saying that spiders do great things like eat mosquitoes. I had several mosquito bites on my legs. Maybe I was being selfish, but suddenly I felt sympathy for the eight legged freak outside.
"You don't want me to kill it?" John asked.
"Okay. I think for right now we should just let it be. But if it gets in the house, it's on."
"Okay."
For those of you who don't know, we are big softies when it comes to animals. A couple of days ago, we christened our spider. Her name is Matilda. She appears to be an American House Spider. According to the website of the Virginia Math and Science Center, she is a cobweb weaver spider. She also is not aggressive and it is highly unlikely that she will bite either our pets nor us. So for now, she is welcome.
