Fun Little Friend

Rhett and I were laying in bed watching a little SVU last night and I looked up at the ceiling over by my bedroom window and saw something that looked a little out of place. I was wearing my glasses, which I don't see well out of, so I wasn't sure if I was seeing this correctly, and it wasn't clear what it was. So I pointed to it and said "Rhett, what is that?" He said, "Oh my gosh. That thing is HUGE!! You better go out of the room..." I freaked! I was trying to muffle my screams so I wouldn't wake everyone up but I was pretty scared. So I had to go get a jar for Rhett and some other stuff to help him catch the fuzzy guy. I just came to the door frame and threw them to Rhett =). The spider was on the other side of the room but I didn't want to be anywhere close! This guy put up a good fight! He almost made it in our closet and under some blankets. Once we had him in this jar Rhett poured some rubbing alcohol on him to preserve him (and I think it was a painful way to die- poor spidy...). Bennett has a bug collection and they're all in alcohol to keep them real looking. Anyways, he took the lid off the jar and poured a little in and the spider almost got away. Rhett slammed the lid back on the jar and the little guy lost a leg ={. Oh well! Anyways, here he is. We think he's a wolf spider but he's HUGE. This picture doesn't do him justice. He was seriously the size of our hand- like if you open all your fingers. HUGE! We think it might be a brown recluse or a desert recluse but probably a wolf. Either way, he wasn't some little thing that Rhett could just catch and put back outside. No Way! Enjoy...







Have any of you had any new friends try joining your family this summer? I can' wait for the new types of bugs in Ohio!! Blah!

Reptiles Anyone?

We're trying to find a good home for a couple of our pets. I'd rather give them to someone I know rather than sell them on craigslist to anyone...

We have a water turtle who's really quite easy to maintain. He'll come with a really big tank (I think it's 20 gallons??), a heat stick thingy (you put it in the water to keep it warm...), a light for him to bask in, and then of course all the rocks and stuff in the tank, and all the food. His tank has filters, which we have some extra right now (and you'll get those too) and those should probably be changed about once a month or so and then we use distilled water to prevent hard water build up in his tank. If you have soft water you might not have to buy distilled. I'm not sure though. Bennett loves to feed him and watch him swim. Let me know if you want to come check him out! And I can send pics too. I don't think he's a red-ear slider because his ears aren't red but he's some sort of poisonous turtle- but only if you were to eat him. So just wash your hands after you touch him and you'll be fine.

We also have a fire belly toad. This guy is pretty old. We've had him since we lived in Utah (almost 3 years ago...) and their life span is only 3-5 years (I think). But he's really easy to take care of too. He comes with a 10 gallon tank, lots of rocks, and some water bowls he basically lives in. You'll need to feed him small crickets once a week but those are really cheap at Petco or Petsmart. It's under $2 a week to buy him food. He's fun to watch also. Bennett likes dumping the crickets into his cage and watching him catch them. Oh, he also has a heat lamp that'll come with his cage, and a filter if you want to make his cage mostly water, with a little rock. It's opposite of that right now.


Anyways, let me know if you want to come look at either of them. We really need to find homes for them before I start stressing about it as the move gets closer!!