The Eensy Weensy Spider

Most people have cats or dogs for pets. We've had our share. We've even had birds and fish. Throw in a couple of gerbils for good measure. She isn't your typical pet, but now we have a black widow spider named Wilma.




Wilma didn't start out as a pet. As a matter of fact, it was last October when our youngest daughter told me that we had a spider in the garage and she was sure it was a black widow. She told me that for three days. Since I don't really care for spiders, especially the black widow variety, I tried to ignore the situation. Finally...on day four I told my husband that he had to deal with the situation. I was thinking that he would go into the garage wearing his big brown boots and stomp on that poor sucker. WRONG! The mighty hunter and trapper catches the thing in a canning jar!

That black beauty sat on my kitchen counter for the next several days as the girls brought friend after friend from the neighborhood to view the poisonous villain. While in the midst of hurricane season, our daughters plucked the name "Wilma" from the headlines and bestowed it on their new fascination.

It wasn't long before my husband decided to throw a pesky fly into Wilma's jar. We all stood around the jar, morbidly intent on watching what would happen next. ATTACK!!! We were immediately hooked! Now we take great pleasure in capturing whatever flying or creeping thing we can find and flinging it into Wilma's jar. How sick is that?!

I have to admit that there are days when I think about taking her jar out and depositing it into the trash just before the men come to collect it. But I just couldn't do that to one of the family! For now she'll keep her spot on my kitchen window sill.