Disclaimer : I had arachnophobia until I met Charlotte. I am not a wierdo who thinks all spiders go to heaven. I do have a life. I just loved one spider.
Go ahead and yawn and stop reading this if you can't handle me getting this off of my chest. It all started over a month ago when a little spider made her home in the window sill outside of my kitchen window. I hated her and wished her dead until I saw she was working on a little egg sac. I observed her for several weeks and would notice her every morning over coffee and cleaning. I had that common bond with her. Charlotte, as I appropriately named her, filled my mornings with disgust and delight as I watched her weave her web and prepare to be a mama.
One day Greg, the man of the house, was cooking some type of seafood which filled the house with a not so fresh smell. He opened the window and knocked Charlotte's' egg sac down. Greg, being a barbarian, preceded to taunt me about how he hurt Charlotte and her innocent spiderlings. I was pretty pissed if I can say that bluntly. I looked for Charlotte the next morning only to find that she was not there. I was sad but understood that she is a spider and who really cares, right?! They are one of the grossest creatures on the planet, right?! Well, I did care, enough to look again the next day. That girl, a fighter I tell you, had gone down and gotten her egg sac. Pulled it back into her web.....and made another sac surrounding her babies. You could see the old dried out sac and the new white sac. She looked exhausted for several days. Not moving much. (yes, I did see Charlotte's Web this year in the theater) I could really observe this though and felt really sorry for her.
Now for the inconvenient truth....we had a bit of a spider infestation this summer. I call it infestation because for several weeks I would find spiders here, there and just about everywhere. And we are not talking spiders like Charlotte. We are talking real spiders, ugly ones that don't talk and love pigs....or people. These spiders were even too ugly for God to love!! I did not know if my Charlotte was one of those. Here she was making babies. Making our lives less peaceful. I knew I needed Greg to do the dirty work. I did not want to, could not, and would not kill Charlotte. Honestly, I don't really kill anything if it is outside. I always tell Luke when we are outside, this is their house, inside...that is our space. I knew there were hundreds? of babies in there. Just waiting to infest our house. I needed Greg to exterminate Charlotte before she had those kids though. Something painless.
WWELLLL...I just didn't think it through. This morning I looked out of the window and saw the sac had tons of babies spilling out of it. Charlotte looked busy and I felt so guilty about wanting to "do her in". I mentioned to Greg that he had to do something because all the babies were everywhere. I mean, I have small children and Ella crawled right up to one the other day!!! (don't be afraid to come over...we don't have bugs...just spiders because they eat all the other ones :) I had to defend my own flesh and blood. Real blood. Spiders don't even have any!
Before dinner Greg snuck around back and wiped Charlotte out. My heart was full of remorse. I had really grown to care for her. We bonded in some weird sick way. I honestly wanted to cry for the way she died. Sprayed with some chemical. I wish it could have been faster. Or she just would have moved her babies and web somewhere else. I am writing this light heartily to ease the sadness but I will miss Charlotte. The only spider I will ever like. And I mean EvEr. Sigh.
To Charlotte. You were my friend for a month. You taught me that you never give up on your kids. You made a pretty web. You had a real personality for a spider I guess. I am sincerely going to miss seeing you tomorrow. RIP.
