Goats, Spiders & Dogs, Oh My!

True confessions... I'm really not an indoor animal person. I love animals of all sorts when they are outside, in their own environment. It gives me great pause to observe animals out where we live... I just like to love 'em and leave 'em (outside that is).

We have 6 chickens (just lost one), 3 goats (just gained one), one English Mastiff (who is precious, but thankfully lives outside), one outside cat, and one Miniature Schnauzer (who lives indoors, much to my dismay).

Recently, we have adopted as our own a female Yellow Garden Spider, Argiope aurantia, affectionately named by our offspring, Angelina. She first showed up on our kitchen window over three weeks ago. We were all fascinated and researched everything about her. She built several beautiful webs, caught amazing creatures and devoured the same, in a spider way, right before our eyes. This type of spider builds what looks like a zipper into the web.



Several days ago, I was planting some cannas that my friend passed my way. I, inadvertently of course, completely disrupted Angelina's best-laid plans. I knocked her to the ground and felt immediate guilt. Our house was heart-broken. Everyone just knew she was a goner. But no, Angelina is the spider who seems to want to be our pet. She showed back up the next morning, zipper and all. In fact, Budding Author asked "Does she carry that zipper everywhere she goes?"

Why am I writing about a spider and not a child? Because (1) we have not received any additional information about Prince Caspian since I last wrote (almost 3 weeks ago); (2) we anxiously await information about Little Boy Blue's mother and how she is doing; and (3) the spider is the most exciting thing that has recently happened to Little Mommy and Budding Author.

Perhaps I'll have more exciting tales of children next week. We'll see.