Many past columns celebrated the joys of life with dogs and cats, and we’ve also touched on potbellied pigs, rabbits, hamsters, love birds, tortoises, guinea pigs and other animals broadly considered pets (or, for the more politically correct in the audience, companion animals). This is my first effort at singing the praises of sharing one’s home and heart with a spider.
Eleven-year old Jacob is as fond of Rosie as Timmy was of Lassie. Rosie is a Brachypelma smithi, aka the Mexican Red Knee Tarantula. Large is not a word most people like hearing in reference to spiders but this is a large animal: males have a body length of roughly 4 inches, the larger females (like Rosie) tend to be 2 inches bigger, and when you add those 8 legs you get an animal somewhere between salad- and dinner-plate size. Yep, that’s a big spider.
Rosie came into Jacob’s life two years ago. Likely a young animal bred for the pet industry, she can be with him long after he completes grad school. As best as I can judge by her behavior, Rosie is friendly. She is easily picked up and placed on your open palm, never biting or (the more typical spider defense strategy) flicking thorny hairs from her belly or back legs. Well named, her red “knees” (actually one of the several leg joints) against her black body are vibrant but also very capable at digging caves in the dry, sandy soil of her tank. She dines on well-fed crickets (feeding the crickets that serve as food for other animals is called “gut loading”). And although she needs to live alone, her periodic molt produces a complete but hollow hard-skin model of herself which causes many the newbie spider-owner to think that a second creature somehow got into the tank.
Why a tarantula? Why not? Besides, Jacob is highly allergic to dog and cat hair but has a very tolerant mom.
Ken White is the president of the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA.