My Spider, Tiger

How I Met Tiger

One of my most favorite things about summer is the smell of the grill when my father and I spend time cooking together. We grill all kinds of things like hot dogs, bell peppers, pork, mushrooms, beef, corn, and even pizza one time. I love the smell of hot coals and wood as the fire laps away at sizzling chicken covered in spices and sauce, however, we're not the only ones that appreciate the aroma. As soon as you get that grill started, it is always accompanied by dozens and dozens of flies. They're not really much of a problem until they sneak into the house with us. These little homewreckers are the most annoying thing in the world. They constantly buzz around and smack into windows and mirrors and make noise and drive the cats up the walls! Literally! And for some odd reason, their final destination is always my room.

My bed is right next to my window and I tend to stare out of it and watch the birds and our little tree dance in the wind. One day I actually noticed a little black spot hiding in the space between my window and the screen. A jumping spider! Admittedly I nearly soiled myself, but I came to my senses as I realized: it was on the other side of the glass, and I was not. Out of what I considered morbid curiosity, I simply observed it. Day after day, I would watch this little creepy crawly skitter around the inside of my window from the safety of the other side of the glass, as it would react to me and my movements. It knew I was there too. Eventually, I grew an affinity for it. It was strange, I know, but I felt like I understood it more and was a lot less scared of it. It seemed to have gotten less scared of me as well.

My dad had made shish kabobs three days prior and the first one of the many flies to come had finally migrated to my room. I hate flies. This big, fat, noisy bug would fly in circles around my room and thunk against my window with no sign of letting up. I finally decided that if it wanted out so bad, maybe it would leave if I opened the window. I unlocked the window and struggled to slide it up to about two inches and waited. The fly banged into the pane about three more times before finally going underneath and I quickly slammed it shut. I watched its erratic flight as it hit the glass and then the screen, and then the glass and the screen again. The fly was taken care of but the noise, oh the noise, was much, much worse. I stared at it in defeat as I pondered about what to do with the thing, but I noticed something else. The jumping spider that lived between my window and the screen had taken notice of the buzzing nuisance. "This will be fun," I remember thinking to myself. I watched the spider cautiously approach the fly, like a cat would an unexpecting rodent. It crept up within an inch of the fly and pounced! The suddenness of it made me jump but I was determined to keep watching. Within a minute of catching it, I could see that the spider's abdomen had gotten bigger. I guess he had been hungry. All in all, I was glad to be rid of this nuisance and the little guy got a meal out of it; a win-win. It became routine for me to crack open my window and let a fly out to feed, who I began to consider, my new friend.

Another day, another fly, or so I thought. I noticed the insect when it flew right past my ear, making me cringe and shudder with disgust. I opened the window, let it out, and closed the window. I noticed it immediately. My heart sank to my stomach and I froze. When I had opened the window, I startled the spider into the crease between the two windows, and when I closed it, the spider was now inside of the house. In the midst of my panic and my mind racing, I struggled to figure out how to fix this. I finally decided that maybe it wasn't so bad; the jumper could just live in the house, right?

After living with the spider in the house, only ever noticed it every now and then; I also started noticing moths around the house. Mainly in the kitchen (I would find out later that I had brought them in the house after one fell out of a tree and landed on my bag). It got to a point where you could not go even fifteen minutes without seeing one! Something had to be done. We decided that the best plan of action was to simply fog the house and get it over with. I was really worried about this because the jumping spider would be killed it I didn't find him, and it would be all my fault! We planned to fog the home on Monday when we could all be out of the house and let the foggers do their job. Four days passed and I couldn't find my spider anywhere. Monday morning we were getting ready to go out, no spider in sight. I was devastated. We were putting all the animals in the car, and waiting on my brother to get ready when I heard him shout for me. "I found it," he stated and pointed to the spider on the window. I was elated. I grabbed a piece of tupperware and captured the now scrawny little guy and covered it in plastic wrap and poked holes in the top. I was so relieved to have found him, and honestly, I felt I had gained a new appreciation for this little jumping spider's life. This is when I realized something about life. It sounds silly, but I decided that even though I and the rest of society had been conditioned to fear what we appropriate as some kind of man-killing machine, was really just as vulnerable as everyone else. I was happy because I saved this spider's life. I was happy because I had made an impact. Just because the spider's life was small and insignificant to some, doesn't mean my feelings are small or irrelevant, it just means that I appreciate life and even learned to appreciate my own life.