Adventures in cat-sitting

[m_cobweb]

I went through my archives and re-uploaded this icon just for this post. Because last night I was introduced personally to the Giant House Spider, a species which apparently was brought to the Pacific Northwest about 1900 and has since become rather famous. Notorious?

I don't think they're poisonous, but I've been told they will run at you. I'm not bothered by spiders in general, but if a three-inch version runs at me, that could change. (I hear some of you screaming from here, don't I?}

My biggest worry was the cat where I'm staying, but I don't think she's inclined to mess with it. I did zip up my bag that it was next to, not wanting a nasty surprise. And it was the first thing I thought of this morning when I woke up. I don't know where it went, but it wasn't on my pillow, and that's the main thing.

I still need to tell my clients they have one of these, but I'm sort of hoping I'll find its naturally-deceased corpse before I have to.

Comments

[cupcake_goth]

Speaking as someone who has those in the basement (WHICH IS NOT REMOTELY OKAY, LET ME TELL YOU): they're not poisonous, they will run at you, and cats think they're the best thing to chase ever.

They're terrifying. They're terrifying for people who aren't phobic. But they're not actually dangerous. (Unless you're me, and then there's the danger of straight-up fainting.)

[madgastronomer]

Eeeeeeek. Nopenopenopenopenope...

I'm having flashbacks to the huge wolf spiders of my youth. We had them in the house frequently. So you have my completely sympathies.

[sistawendy]

I'm not an arachnophobe, but that spider is really quite large. And, says the article, audible.

[staxxy]

I am pretty mellow about spiders, but these get shooed outside if they get too big or too close to the areas that are actually used in my home (so like, ceiling corners are fine, but in the bathtub is not.

[fuyudragon]

I've had one of those walk over me while watching movies at a friends house and it's steps were audible as it walked away across the carpet. I had words to say. So many words. I'm of the "catch it in a cup and escort it outside" set, until they're too large to fit in the cup. Then it's time to burn everything and start over.

Related: Intellectually, I understood that there are brown recluse spiders in Central Oregon, but I have family living there and I worked in the woods there and none of us ever knowingly encountered them. This summer I visited my grandmother who handed me a bottle of lemon cleaner as soon as I walked in the door and instructed me to spray around the guest bed because the summer heat was driving the brown recluses inside and a neighbor was going through the not-fun results of having been bit in their home. If I didn't love that grandmother so much, I would have bolted.