It is with sadness that I type this blog... Hagrid, our newest addition to the family, passed away a couple days ago. Some of you may know of him from a blog not too long ago, "Meet Hagrid". A rescue animal that we happily took into our home back in August. So bizarre to some that a Tarantula would need to be saved, because in the minds of many, who in the hell would want one of those things as a pet?
Hagrid was spider #6. I will link some of my other spider blogs here if you have the curiosity to *meet* some of my other beloved family members over the years.
Spider #5, a lovely pink toe named "NO" as in the Nameless One, was also a rescue of sorts. A touching tale to even those not keen on arachnids. See here. I've read NO's story a number of times and re-tell it to those who will listen.
Spider #4, was a rose hair I named "SYD". A big gentle spider he was, never showing any aggression except to his prey. I don't think I've read this blog since the day I keyed it out. Re-reading it now and I am taken back to those days over a decade ago. He was a wonderful Tarantula as far as they go. Link is here. It's actually a rather short blog of mine!
Spider #3, a beast of a spider I named Abigail. You should gather that by having the title "bird eating spider" in her species name. She intimidated me but I tried to care for her the best I could. A scary short story if you care to check it out here.
Spider #2, a small little darling Mexican Pink Toe I named Daisy. Her time with me was rather short as well for some reason. I re-read her story her as I linked it. I remember the day I got her as I think back, how excited I was. A somewhat short read as well, click here.
And here is the one who started it all for me... Maude. She is my claim to fame on giving a Tarantula a good caring home ensuring longevity as Maude neared a ripe old age of 23 with me. In this blog are links to a couple other blogs about her, but this one is about her passing. We all loved Maude in our own ways and it may show in my tales here.
Now Hagrid joins the others to wherever they go. Actually he joins Maude and NO out back now. Yes, I buried my spiders.
Hagrid came to us in need of a new and caring home. Unfortunately we had no idea how old he was and can only imagine what kind of life he had before us. We gave him peace in his final months and may he have found that. Only a few of us ever laid eyes upon him in this house. He was a true nocturnal spider, coming out after dark and usually when the house was at it's quietest. We saw signs of his activities the morning after, from webbings to hundreds of foot prints in the sand. I used to smooth out the sand from time to time just to monitor this creature I seldom saw. I shared bits of him on social media and many others enjoyed his antics. Of course the best story of all is in the blog I shared about him... everyone remembers the spatula! Love it or hate it, they remember it. I still laugh about it the odd time I am using that spatula.
I cleaned out Hagrid's tank today and it was a difficult task. I am still in disbelief that he is gone already. Angie and I kept looking into his home throughout the weekend, seeking him out, even though he'd passed a few days earlier. Old habits, eh?
Empty house. :(
Here's a couple photos of our time together...
It was great the odd night he surfaced before we went to bed. This was few and far between and we did our best to not spook him if we were still up. All through his stay with us, Hagrid was a very skittish spider, often running back to his coconut hut with any floor vibration of us or our shadow passing his tank even. I'd never had such a fearful spider before which made me wonder about his past?
We even got him a cool Halloween decoration with this ceramic tree. Next up was going to be a Christmas one!
A few weeks back we also lost one of our Frogs. His name was Won-Won. He was Angie's frog. Old age we assume because he'd been with us for over 3 years. Not sure the life expectancy on those guys but ours all seem to run that length of 3 or slightly beyond.
I know not everyone will understand having such creatures around but that's alright, we do. A simple slogan of mine sums it up...
The furry, the feathered, the slimy, the scaly... all touch my heart daily.
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