I know, that's a strange thing for me to say. I'm the woman who once had a six-foot long pet iguana named Cedric...who rescued a crow who's feet were frozen and took care of him until he was okay...who rescued mice from my cats at the old farmhouse we lived in...who thinks praying mantids are the most awesome creatures out there...who tried to find a live dung beetle for my girl scout troop's Egypt presentation...who has told her girl scouts for years that the various snakes, bats and mice they encountered at camp were babies (they weren't) rendering them suddenly "adorable"...who attached dozens of locust carapaces to a friend's (who must not be named) screen door when they were out of town...
But this might be the one thing I can't do.
Margaret turns 13 Sunday. And she wants a tarantula. A Chilean Rose tarantula like the one we all held at the bug museum in Denver last winter.
Remember, this is the kid who also wants a capybara (world's largest rodent) and a miniature anteater - why? Because we saw stuff on youtube.
This is also the kid who has 3 dogs, 2 cats and 2 guinea pigs. She's actually a lot like me.
I used to have arachnaphobia. Spiders terrified me. It wasn't until I had a bizarre, psychedellic situation with a pregnant wolf spider at 3am that I stopped fearing them. (Alcohol with a denial chaser really helped.)
I ordered a book on the Care and Feeding of Tarantulas. It didn't help. Did you know that tarantulas have OHMYGOD HUGE FANGS??? Oh sure, they rarely bite. That's what they all say, but I've seen enough movies from the 1950's where, when exposed to radiation, giant tarantuals roam the countryside, eating tall, fabulous redheads.
And a tarantula in captivity can live for 20 years??? My husband says, "Oh, good. She can take it to college with her." I don't believe for one minute that my daughter will do that. Then I'm stuck with a hairy spider until I turn 64. Insert shudder here.
And then, well, I should be more mature than this but tarantualas are ugly. I know, it's not their fault and I shouldn't blame them. But I'm me, and I do.
As the day draws closer (and my husband is out of town) I wonder if I can suck it up and do it. I feel my arachnaphobia coming back...
The Assassin
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
I'm Not Sure I Can Do This...
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12 comments:
If you do it, you're a better mom than I. Could not, would not in a million years do it. I'd go for a pet snake but no lizards, spiders, bugs or Rodents Of Unusual Size. (Not that I live in a fire swamp, but you never know.)
What ever happened to the simple things like "Mom, can I get my nose pierced?"
I KNOW, right? I could do a praying mantis or beetle, but I'm having trouble with this one. BTW - no reptiles either. Not after the iguana issue.
Yikes! Little spiders don't scare me, but a big furry tarantula is another story. I'll stick to cats and dogs - just as furry, but fewer legs. : ) Do they make a nano-pet tarantula?
Hmmm...a nanopet tarantula...you may be onto something there.
She can buy one when she goes to college. Give it to her as a going away present: "Bye, daughter, I love you, here's a spider."
Hellie, I just spit Diet Coke all over my laptop.
You would be surprised at what u can do. When my daughter was around 14 she wanted to get a mouse, my husband brought her to the pet store, she came home with a rat! It creeped me right out, the yucky tail and the feeling of the paws on my skin! But in no time at all i was carrying it around on my shoulder!
Rats are smart and affectionate, right? I don't think the hairy spider is.
Yeah, um, no. Sorry to my kids (if they had asked for one), but I don't want to buy a pet I may end up taking a broom to in the middle of the night because it escaped.
I agree with you commpletely - tell her she can have one when she moves out lol.
If it got out, the cats would play with it and the dogs would think, "Oh! Walking food!"
Oh HELL No!! Not a chance, never. I turn into a shrieking mess with just a tiny little one.
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