An Unexpected Pet

There is, or was, a spider living in our upstairs bathroom tube. He was a homely brown little thing with funny looking pincers on the front of his head. He would scamper around the curved edge of the white walls of the tube and made me find enjoyment watching him. When I first noticed him, his attempts to get at the freedom beyond the porcelain prison were panicked and hard to watch. That lasted only for a few days after which he calmed down to start building webs and doing the likes of things that spiders do. The little dead black bugs that peppered our rarely used tube started disappearing (they had flown in to inspect the plants my mom keeps in our bathroom). He seemed content enough to sit in his snowy heaven and stayed for a week plus a few days. He did not look or seem dangerous to anything besides flies. I thought it was going to be thus always, I had grown used to him being there.

But as surly as the sunsets, I was wrong. I looked in at him only a few days ago and was aghast. His scamper had transformed to a delirious stumble as he feebly touched the smooth wall surrounding him. These white flawless towers that had been a heaven yesterday were, ounce again, a prison. After a glance at the floor of his jail i realized that the little dead things were all gone; he was starving. It struck me that he was dying. But that wasn't the worst of it. As I watched his desperate attempts to hoist himself as high up the tube rims as possible it struck me as wretched and horrible to think of dying in that desolate blank world without a soul to help. It was to cruel!

I do not usually care so much about spiders or insects in general but something like affection had grown in me for this little pet of mine. So to observe such pathetic motions for freedom was heart wrenching for me. I just could not stand it, something must be done to save him. I snatched a drinking glass from my room along with a sheet of paper. Climbing into the tube scared him a great deal and it was a few seconds before I caught him under the glass. In the classic bug catching way I swept the paper under the glass and the poor panicked arachnid.

Outside I quickly shook him off the paper on to a tomato plant. I felt like hero, however silly the action really was. If he was indeed dying then at least he would die in pleasantly green natural surroundings for him. But my hope was that he would find food and live on a little longer.

I hope you enjoyed that little tale of mine!