How are unusual pets cared for?
DEAR PET TALK >> Can you write about unusual pets, and how to take care of them? — Ms. Miscellaneous
DEAR MS. MISCELLANEOUS >> You bet. “Unusual pets” is a theme we will examine periodically since our query to the Be Pawsitive community prompted many responses. However, with Halloween around the corner, let’s start with spiders.
One of my dearest friends as a child was a little girl whose father was a college professor who specialized in arachnids. The family travelled all over the world to collect spiders, and I when I was very young I was fascinated by the large tarantulas kept in clear, plastic shoe-box style enclosures at their house. I also learned, that you needed two large dinner plates in your gear when you hunted large, tropical spiders. If you found a species you wanted to collect perched on leaves, you put one plate beneath the branch, the other on top, then gently encase the spider, and slide it off the branch between the plates. True story!
Here’s another. Reverend Blamo, an artist friend who lives in southern New Hampshire has long been a fan of tarantulas, and had “a bunch” of these immense arachnids through the years. “I was fascinated by their … everything!” he wrote me. “They hunt by being perfectly still. As they grow, they shed their outer shell like a lobster.”
But aren’t they poisonous? Blamo has the low-down on these arthropods. “People fear their bite but the hairs on their back cause far more discomfort. Trust me on that one.”
He kindly explained what the sensation is like, should you touch their back hairs. “First, run, jog, get very sweaty, and then get completely undressed (I’ll turn around). Then dive into a pool of fiberglass insulation. Swim through the pink hell-fiber to the ladder. Wash off in a Tabasco shower. It is sort of like that.”
Blamo reports that his tarantulas were self-sufficient creatures. “They barely produce waste, eat a few crickets, and just need water. I had mine on crushed walnut shells and a few things to hide in. At night I would hear them digging.”
Happy Halloween season everyone!