Tuesday, July 18, 2006

The spider in the bathtub

There's a spider living in our bathtub. I noticed him about a week ago. There he sits, occasionally runs a lap, minding his own business. Just a regular, non-threatening, garden-variety spider, the kind you find in most people's basements. Though this one looks pretty healthy. About an inch in diameter with legs splayed, his body the size of the tip of my pinky.

Then bath night came along. I scooped him up on a magazine and deposited him in the opposite corner of the bathroom.

A couple days later he'd made his way down the hall to Helena's room. Oh, the shrieks. She loves pretending to be scared, but perhaps he'd crossed a little far into her comfort zone. This time I transported him to the laundry room. It didn't occur to me at the time that the cat, whose litter box is in the area, might take an interest. As a matter of fact, he didn't — the cat is unbelievably lazy these dog days.

By next morning, Spidey had crossed the hall and settled back into the tub. Then it's bath night again; J-F in preparing the bath area must now find a safe haven for the critter. He picks him up, and... drops him. Down the drain. There's nothing to be done about it. The bath must proceed. Water will be evacuated through those pipes.

It took a couple nights, but this morning, Spidey's back.

Helena wants to build him a house.

6 comments:

litlove said...

Extremely persistent spider. I have to admit to not being too fond of spiders. But now I call for my son and he rescues me. It's so nice when children stop being entirely dependent and start to become immensely useful!

martha said...

Now that is an intrepid spider. We are all pretty much blase about spiders around here, because there are so damn many of them-- something about it not getting cold enough in the winter to control the numbers. I kind of like them. There is nothing so satisfying as hearing the dying buzz of one of those infernally annoying giant flies caught in a web and about to be sucked dry. Once we found what I am convinced was some sort of local tarantula in our house, bigger and much thicker bodied than the most hefty wolf spider. We even took pictures.

Renee said...

What is it that spiders love about the bathtub? Our guest bathroom's tub is always inhabited by several different species of spiders at any given time, and since it's the guest bathroom, they get to live a happy and full life... until someone comes to stay overnight.

Stefanie said...

For some reason I now have the "itsy bitsy spider" song running through my head :)

Anonymous said...

Ha! Plucky creature!

I was thinking more along the lines of the song 'Boris the Spider'.

Anonymous said...

How in the world did he survive the drain? i'm ever so glad there's a happy ending. I've got a softspot for spiders and not a spider to focus it on.