This spider came into my house on a towel from our clothes line. I saw it as I picked up said towel and it jumped back into the basket of other towels waiting to be folded. I knew it was there and planned to deal with it later, but life drew me away. Later, upon returning to the basket, the spider had moved on -- probably was somewhere in the laundry room as that is where the basket had been sitting.
Then a few days later I was giving our laundry room a serious overhaul in order to fit a second washer. (Which has since come to join our happy family and is amazing and God is so good to provide us with that, but anyhow, back to the spider.) As I was picking up a statue of St. Francis and a wolf, I felt something soft on the back and jerked, as I turned the statue -- there was a little web and that same spider when jumping off onto the dresser. I stood there breathing heavily for a moment, feeling the adrenaline rush into my system and then channeled my inner Franciscan Spirit.
St. Francis, for those who don't know, LOVED animals. He got along with them -- all of them -- EVEN SPIDERS. He is especially know for convincing the Wolf of Gubio to stop being a pain to the villagers (hence the wolf on my statue along with Francis).
Slight Tangent: While I was in Assisi, visiting important places associated with St. Francis (since I went to Franciscan University and all -- and we took a class trip there when I studied at the university's campus in Gaming, Austria) I saw this statue of St. Francis that was located outside of his basilica. This statue ALWAYS has birds on it (according to the sign and in my experience of it while there). As in one or two leave and some come back. Seriously it has birds on it ALL THE TIME because Francis is just that cool.
So back to the spider -- Supposedly there are four kinds of spiders that are dangerous to humans: brown recluse, black widow, hobo spider, and something else. I looked this information up a few days ago and I would have sworn there were four kinds that are extremely dangerous, but now I can only find three and I've looked hit my quota of spider pictures I can stomach for the day, so my research has come to a grinding halt. Feel free to enlighten me in the comments with the fourth kind of severely dangerous spider that exists.
I have concluded the spider I allowed to live in my basement is a dancing or jumping spider (judging by looks). They are extremely smart and although they have a painful bite, are not dangerous. However, since concluding this, it has come to my attention that these spiders do not make webs. Supposedly they hunt their prey and attach a drag line to it. Brilliant. But unfortunately, that does not explain the mini-web I found on the back of the wolf, where I also found the spider.
But whatever. To sum up: I let the spider live. I left the web alone. Don't bother visiting me if you have arachnophobia. and especially avoid my basement, really just no matter what, because it is not really ever fit for company anyhow, in any sense.
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