Monday, 9 October 2023

Eight-legged obsession

For some reason, I seem determined to convince Philippa that I should have a pet tarantula. To be specific - a Gooty Sapphire Ornamental Tarantula (Poecilotheria metallica). They are a striking metallic blue colour and are utterly beautiful. Venomous, and dangerous to humans, but also in a lot of trouble in the wild, being classed as 'critically endangered' and with many more breeding in captivity now than naturally.  So, if we get one, we'll be helping with important conservation work, right?
Philippa doesn't see it that way.
They are also known as Peacock tarantulas and are only found in a relatively small area in India (about 100 square kilometres). Females live a lot longer than males - up to FOUR times as long - so you get better value for money if you buy a female. None of this, though, seems to be swaying my wife towards agreeing that it's a good idea to get one.
For some strange reason, she thinks a deadly spider is a terrible thing to have in a house with two young children....
I don't even know why I've suddenly started pushing for this. It might be the weird dream I had on Saturday - I was camping in the middle of a wood with a young David Attenborough and I kept finding very small, but very colourful, spiders. I would go to pick them up and remove them from our camp, only to have the cameraman (because for some reason there was a creative team directing the whole dream) push me away, telling me "Don't touch them, they're Widows, if they bite you you'll be dead within an hour." I would turn to young Mr Attenborough for confirmation or argument and he would shrug his shoulders as if to say, "Do what you like mate, I don't give two shits."  And my tent was full of holes, too, so I got wet when it rained and kept getting bothered by mosquitoes. And yet, on awakening, I didn't get an urge to buy a new tent or buy pet mosquitoes, I got an urge to research colourful spiders and in the process I found, and fell in love with, the Gooty Sapphire.
Philippa says this is just one of my brief compulsions and that I'll have forgotten about it in a few days, but we'll see...

RC 9-10-23

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