Zombie Spiders? I think not.

So... on Sunday the 30th I discovered that Bunny was dead.

• Sunday, July 30^th - Discover Bunny dead... hanging from a web in her cage.
  
• Monday, July 31^st -
  • Find a huge Daring Jumping Spider
    
  • Quickly clean out Bunny's cage
    
  • Catch new spider
    
  • Pose Bunny's carcass for several photos
    
  • NOTE: I did consider that he might be molting (though I'd never heard of spiders hanging to do that... and considered putting his carcas back in the cage (with new spider) until I could decide to part with it.
• Tuesday, August 1^st - Find Bunny's EMPTY carcass... He finished molting in the night... and ran off (since he wasn't caged). <pout> I also happened upon a children's book about spiders in which they show a spider molting - in the hanging position! Whey couldn't I have found that a day or two sooner?!

I had Bunny for 9 months. He was my first pet spider. The new resident in his old cage is a much larger female named Babs. I miss Bunny, but perhaps I'll see him around. Babs is much more skittish than Bunny was, so she doesn't make nearly as good a model. Impressively, though, she catches her food then stays up in the corner of her cage to eat it.

Meanwhile, Johnny died before I could even name him. (Johnny is the spider that was caught in a porta-john.) I brought him into the kitchen today (with the rest of the spiders) so I could photograph him. Well he plays possum real well. When I picked up his cage, he moved. He's not dead! He gets into this odd position... I guess when he feels threatened. I can't tell if he ate any of the cricket I gave him. I've put a live one in there now and will check back on them periodically.

And finally - I have not yet named the white spider. I'd love a punny name or something silly... snowball, perhaps. hahaha

I've taken photographs of ALL of the spiders today, but I'm far too tired to edit them all. I was absolutely giddy in the kitchen today, though... surrounded by all my babies and a bag o' treats for them. lol

Oh, and I took Anansi with me on errands today. She doesn't like to travel and I've decided maybe she could use an actual hide. Nothing at the pet store was small enough... I'm considering using a toilet paper roll cut down to size. I think I'll post to one of my spider communities for advice on that.

Also, I fed Anansi... I dropped a couple crickets into her cage and was watching as she snagged first one, then the other... she is eating them both at the same time! She has quite the mouthful! One of them did get away after a few minutes, but it didn't get far at all!

I'm a big dork for my babies. Thanks for reading this hyooj entry!