This morning, as I reached down to grab my dumbbells for the morning workout I noticed something next to my shoe. It was oddly shaped and I didn’t have my glasses on so I went in for a closer look. Slowly the blurry edges converged and revealed the body and legs of an adult Brown Recluse spider… I think. Here are the facts: it was definitely brown in color, definitely about the size of a quarter, and definitely had eight legs. I promptly squashed it with the end of my dumbbell, and by the time I had a chance to go grab a paper towel and my glasses for a postmortem the spider was making its final journey down the digestive tract of my cat.

I am usually very kind to critters that happen to wander into my house, either letting them back outside or leaving them be (especially in case of spiders—they eat other critters), but I have a bit of phobia surrounding Brown Recluse (and for that matter Black Widow) spiders and tend to squash first and ask questions later. It is truly astonishing that my cat made such quick work of the carcass—she typically stares at bugs and bats at them innocently for a few minutes and is done with them. I hope the spider wasn’t playing possum… I have seen what Brown Recluse bites can do(WARNING! Gross!) and I am not a fan. I went to my apartment complex’s office and got signed up to have my whole apartment sprayed this week. I hope they come tomorrow. In the mean time I’ll be sporadically freaking out and dancing around like a fool every time I feel a twitch.

—d