Heh, so if I name Bill Gate's checkbook "George" it's mine? Yessss!

name it, feed it, it's yours forever. especially with cats.

i like to think of them as little angels sent from Heaven to test my Patience.

sherman oaks...sounds like the house down the road from tara.

have a nice weekend!

Spiders are Good Luck. I only kill daddy longlegs and ants. Everything else gets carried gently outside;)

OMG, does that mean my cat stays too? But I'm allergic!

O well, I wuv my kitty *snuggles mad-eye*

Just how big a spider are we talking about here? Big enough to move furniture?

*Shudder*

I could name a spider, but I still wouldn't be able to call it mine. They just freak me out too bad.

*sigh* What a lovely story. I'm afraid that, with cats, if they pass through your threshold, they're yours forever whether or not you've named them.

Paula, daddy longlegs are harmless - carry them outside, too! I have big, fat, hairy wolf spiders in my basement. The scary kind that will sit back on their haunches and stare you down. Luckily Nutmeg likes to hunt them. She sees the basement as a tasty bug smorgasbord. ew.

first of all, it couldn't possibly have little insect legs, because it is not an insect, but a spider....big diff.....(yes, i are an (anal) entomologist, knitter) second of all, spiders (and bats and snakes) are much maligned, yet without them, we would *truly* be overwhelmed with creepy crawlies - they have a job to do, and they do it admirably, third of all, you *do* know what freud said about women being afraid of spiders, don't you? (hint: it's similar to men being afraid of snakes.....) and girl, you don't strike me this way! love the blog!

I agree. I'm all for Women's Lib, but I think the men should still have to kill the spiders.

Being a smartass Yankee with no manners (but I am really nice, and I will cook for you and ply you with wine, so you should come visit this side of the country sometime and talk to me), I feel it incumbent upon me to point out that spiders are not insects, and that they eat things that are insects and that would otherwise take over the world. Therefore it is not only kind but prudent and ecologically sound to let them live.

However, if I ever start naming the ticks the cats bring in? Please shoot me.

Oh, gosh, what a story. Carlotta! A rooster came into my yard once. Animal Control Man came over (I speak to him often). He told me he had nowhere to take the rooster. I didn't mind the rooster. He hung around; he had plenty to eat; I may have purchased some "chicken scratch". I named him Cha-Cha Freeze. Well, not a month later, he was eaten for breakfast. I only found a few feathers. Devistated!Me. Thanks, Animal Control Man, for telling me a coop isn't just to keep everybody together, but may also be for their safety. Cha-Cha Freeze was only one; I didn't think I needed a coop. Anyway, I too, know: naming=boughting.

Yiy! Sister, do NOT name the spider!

What if she thinks she can move into your room?

Um, Libby, what DOES it mean when men are afraid of snakes, or women are afraid of spiders? Cuz I'm not afraid of spiders (note my Friendly Spider Lecture, I didn't copy off you, honest, you just type faster), but I am afraid of snakes.

How funny! Last year at the time I split with my "Mr. X", I had a very similar experience. I was renovating the foreclosure I found and bought in less than month after telling Mr. X that I was done with the mental abuse and torture. Anyway it was all very depressing and lonely since it was just me and my dog, Samantha. In the patio doorway there was a HUGE Orb spider that was one of the scariest things you could ever see. So huge and scary that to kill or remove her was out of the question. Long story short, I named her Charlotte, of course, and we spent many lonely evenings together discussing men and home renovation. I could pretend it was an "X" she caught each night in her beautiful web that was destroyed by the process. Also every afternoon she would start reweaving the web for each night's catch. We were great friends and at that time seemed to have alot in common with X's and home renovation.

My first year teaching I discovered a spider in the room one day. The students and I named it Spot and decided that Spot was our class mascot.

I got my first cat, Bob, when my neighbors begged me to take him temporarily. He had been living in the yard but now needed to be medicated for two weeks. They would have kept him but he terrified their cat. They promised me that they were trying to find a permanent home for him. After a month, I told them to stop looking. I should have known I was doomed the day I shortened "Bobcat", the name they had given him, to "Bob".

Fabulous post... and so true! I named the ferral cat at work, Starvin' Marvin. Guess where Starvin' Marvin lives now?? :)

...and I love that you picked the name Carlotta!

So true so true! Because once I held a naming contest for the cat that adopted me (fully grown cat, a cat I believe belonged to someone else), she was mine. And she hasn't left my back deck in the 6 months she's been here.

The naming convention is so true.

Libby, lucia, you guys have got to chill on the spiders are not insects business. We come here for fun, not to write our biology papers.

Paula! Don't kill those daddy longlegs! That's bad luck where i come from!

So, should we be calling you Wilbur now?

I don't mind spiders: I kinda gave up minding after finding them in my bathtub every day for years. It was either that or offend everyone with minimal hygiene practices.

Very sweet. But how dare you talk about them & not put up more pictures!!! hmpf. (JK.LOVE YA)

(I've been meaning to ask if Sobakawa was named after that pillow from the infomercial)

You are so right about the name thing....growing up, we never had less than 4 cats at my house because my dad is a sucker for strays. He once found on at a carlot, brought her home, and named her, CARLOTTA...get it?? Right now, my parents have 5 cats, 4 of which showed up on their property, my dad named, and they moved right on in to the house.

Spiders are good; as carnivores, they eat other nasty insects. The flip side is that they also eat your beneficals (ladybugs, lacewings, etc). Now if someone could genetically manipulate them to only eat the bad ones....

kristi, your comment, it's too much.

*snort*!

i love the creepy crawlies. i watched a spider descending from my bedroom ceiling yesterday, thinking i would catch it once it hit the carpet but alas, it blended right in. for the rest of the day i kept feeling something crawling on me.

i'm always amazed at how many bugs are caught. and without bats, we wouldn't have tequila! and that would be a shame, fo' shizzle.

I completely agree on the naming thing...I used to date a Russian guy, years ago. He was overwhelmingly impressed with all things American, including land ownership (this was while we still had the bad ol' iron curtain), so he bought some pasture and wanted to put a calf on it. To raise and eat. I refused, because I knew I would name the calf something like Buttercup, and I could never eat something that had a name. (I have trouble with things that even look kind of like what they were when they were walking or swimming around. Give me a nice anonymous steak any old time...)

I think you need to knit Charlotte a hat.

All of my spiders are "ex spiders," as in EXPIRED. I have no qualms with squishing the little bas#@#ds. Survival of the fittest and my heart cannot take the stealth and the legs!

We animal-naming/keeping people are a special breed. I once had a boyfriend who had a boa constrictor, a couple turtles, and a dog (I'm glad he had at leest one mammal). Well, we came home from a new years eve party and there was black and white rat just hanging out in the corner of the snake cage. He'd apparently been in there for 2 days and the snake hadn't touched him (the bofriend was also very forgetful and had forgotten he gave the snake a nice big rat for Christmas).

So, I thought the rat looked like my old cat Oreo, and so I decided to keep him. I named him Ratso, and he was my companion for about 2 years and lived with me in 3 different states. Ownership of the rat was all good (though my friends were a little freaked out), until he got an ear infection (and had a stroke). All I can say is that there's no ratio between the size of a vet bill and the size of an animal. An overnight stay in an oxygen incubator isn't cheap...and the next morning, when the "exotic" vet was in, she called me to tell me that the best thing to do would be to put him down. So I did...and of course had to pay for the lethal injection. I still miss Ratso...though I've moved up the pet food chain and have a wonderful cat.

I adopted my dog...he came all the way from L.A. to live with me here in Vermont. Maybe he was aquainted with Frankie and Bob in their earlier years? Maybe they were stray homies! That makes me feel a little bit warm and fuzzy, that our pets might have been homies...:)

Have a good weekend!

xx
Shelby

I also find spiders a little alarming, but no more so than other creepy-crawly things, some of which I find more alarming than spiders. And since spiders EAT other creepy-crawly things, I have come to terms with them. I live in a basement apartment, where one might think that moisture and creepy-crawly things abound, but no. There's maybe one or two spiders living with us at any given time, and they mostly keep to themselves, except when one unexpectedly drops down from the ceiling and dangles in front of the telelvision. Then I chastise it and tell it not to let the cats see it, because that, friends, is cat-bait. Last winter I didn't see a spider for a good four months, and wouldn't you know it, I had a silverfish outbreak and started finding tiny brown beetles everywhere. Finally in March, a spider annouced its presence by dangling in front of me while I was knitting. I welcomed it to the potential feast that is our apartment, gave it a short reminder about the perils of the indoor feline hunter-play instinct and then it disappeared behind the couch. The silverfish were back under control within a week, and I haven't seen a brown beetle since. Better than any exterminator, I'm telling you. For some reason, all my spiders are named Betty.

Are we all separated at birth here? I named the humongous garden spider outside my front door "Charlotte" also. Every day she was there in a beautiful spiral web riding the breeze. Every day coming and going I'd say hi Charlotte or bye Charlotte. One day she was gone. I'm hoping I find a Carlotta too.

Your stories make me smile so much. And often warm my heart. Since I am a fellow cat lover. Do you have pics of your cute kitties when they were younger? Pleas share! You are wonderful.

That's kinda like the story of the huge grass plant in my garden...I saw it at the nursery and said, "That's a crazy ass grass plant". DOH! I bought it. Now it dwarfs my little plot of land. I think the CAGP is thinking about moving into the condo with me.

My evil ex is afraid of spiders. I was the one who had to kill them. Now I think that should have told me something about him.

Girl, you are awesome.

I know there's a reason the cattle across the street from me don't have names :-( I've named them, but only because I won't be in attendance when they Go Where Unnamed Cattle Go.

One of our cats showed up at our house and insisted that we take her in. DD named her Déjà (possibly because DD had seen her before I did) and I named her Minute, because she was "no bigger than a minute" and she made friends in a minute. Heh. That was kitty's master plan all along, to be adorably vocal and suck-up-y and gain not one but TWO names, guaranteeing her residence in and dominion over our household. (An online friend, in the interests of brevity, collapsed the two names into "MinJa".)

Spiders eat bugs that like to suck your blood. Right now I love spiders. Not on me... or near me... or in the same room as me... just mysteriously eating the mosquitos/blackflys/no-see-ums/horseflys/deerflys...

Crap. I really hope that you are writing a book, because I am addicted to your blog. It's the literary equivalent of crack. Carlotta indeed.

When my cats were kittens I trained them to capture and eat bugs. However, they've grown old, fat and lazy and no longer have any interest in saving me from the scary spiders. And so we all "happily" co-exist - me, the cats, the bugs - whether I like it or not.

I know spiders are Good To Have Around - they eat other bugs, etc. - but they always seem to stake out the weirdest possible locations. Like the ceiling above my bed, or tap-dancing on my shower head (I rhymed!).

If they show up *there*, they're dead. No negotiations, just a blast of Raid and a quickly mumbled prayer for the dying.

I love the story about Frankie and Bob. It warmed the cockles of my jaded heart. A friend of mine once had a mouse in her office that she didn't want to deal with, so her mother named her Lois.

Completely true - I got a foster dog in August, I thought his name was stupid (Champ - for a Rottweiler - I think not) anyway, I named him Hank, which gave me a useful verb, Hankify. "Oh, Trish, what happened to your beautiful papasan (insert any noun here, screens, carpet, etc.)?" I only have to answer with one word - Hankified.

As for the bugs, my ex was always the designated bug killer. Now that I am single, I have a wonderous thing, a Bugzooka. It is a big tube that gets pumped up with air, I aim it and "fire" and it sucks the bug into this trap. Of course, the problem here is that I have to wait for a brave person to stop by and free said bugs. One time there was a big wood roach in there for like 3 weeks, I guess he lived on the carcasses that were in there with him.

Huh! I thought Daddy Long Legs were supposedly good luck, but what do I know? I know not to name bugs. Laurie, have a wonderful weekend.

yup, I did it too. Named a beautiful crab spider on the front porch. Louie was with us for several generations (Louie the 1st,2nd,3rd,etc) I have never been afraid of spiders....but scream like a little girl if a moth comes my way. We are all freaked out by something! Have a good weekend.

I've had a Charlotte by my front door since the snow melted, and no man to kill her. She is big, hairy, and ugly! I'm scared to even stomp that thing with my shoes on! I had a date the other night who was kind enough to tell Charlotte to "Go to Africa!" and smash it with HIS shoe. Men are good for something, but I wouldn't take the X back, even to kill a Charlotte.

I hear you.. I have Rex and Rocky the daddy-long-legs spiders living in the corner of the bathroom, and I'm starting to be able to tell them apart. Creepy. :)

Oh Laurie, I just love your blog. I rarely say anything because there are umpty-hundred comments before mine, usually. But I'm out here, reading and tearing up (sometimes) and laughing like a loon (sometimes) and admiring you and your cats (always).

You want to talk about what problems arise from naming?! I was cleaning my room when I was a teenager and crumpled up a piece of paper to throw it away and happened to glance at it before doing so. And I swear it looked like it was smiling. So as a joke I marked two little eyes on it and gave it a name (which may actually have been Bob)....

And you want to guess how long I had that stupid piece of crumpled up paper before my mother threw it out, not recognizing it for the character it was? Years.

I still sort of miss him.

I got one of my cats under similar circumstances: I was staying with my mother who had declared a moritorium on feline housemates. A month or two into our cat-less existence, the prettiest kitten I'd ever seen showed up under some bushes. I made a half-hearted effort to find her owners, but it was fairly obvious she had none. I cycled through a few names, all the while my mother was holding fast to the no-cats plan. Finally I came up with "Sophie", to which my mother replied, "I guess that means we're keeping her!" She was the best cat.

LOL! You crack up (daily!)
My mom feeds the two squirrels in her back yard. They are called Hans and Fritz. They are now so saucy that they come in to the house and bully the cats around!

Ooo I hear that on the wireless internet. My laptop has been in the shop for 3 weeks - and it's still not opened up or fixed. I have an actual powerful machine in the home office, but I can't sit on the couch or on the deck with it.

Hah! I can't believe you called Bob and Frankie "shite"! No wonder they write all that stuff on myspace about you! ;)

Oh Lord, I know exactly what you mean. Next, you really need to get up close and personal with your new housemates--they are interesting creatures--I know this because I have gotten up close and personal with a couple who have lived with me during the winter--couldn't squash them, wouldn't throw them out into the elements, so we existed together. Tried not to think about what she (I'm convinced) was doing while I was asleep. All in all, it was a very rewarding relationship--for both of us.

Spiders are great and all for their other bug killing abilities... but there is a limit. Once a spider has grown to the size of 'Too Big To Let Live' it must be eradicated thoroughly. And no half assed attempts on its life either, you must be dedicated to your mission because a Spider that is Too Big To Let Live has a penchant for revenge.

Its true

Charlotte probably had millions of other kids in addition to little Carlotta; for your sake, please resist the temptation to name all of her siblings :(

I name everything including my vehicles. And there must be something going around that makes it a mint julep day....I mentioned them (and Scarlet O'Hara) on my blog today!

Love the stories about your cats.

Maybe Charlotte will write you a message in her web? Or perhaps she reads your blog on her(world wide) web??

I hope you have a wonderful and soothing weekend. You sure do deserve it! Drink some wine for me, okay??

I'm making your Oma's cake for my Oma this weekend. I just know that she'll love it.

Oh, hey, Laurie -- I heard from that MSU botanist about the square watermelons -- check your email! :-)

On our first Thanksgiving as a married couple, a cute little tan and grey cat wondered into my husband's and my front yard. It was so cute with big green eyes and a pink nose.

We had one cat already, but I said to my husband "I'm going to feed it, okay? It looks hungry." The response? "Okay...but know if you do feed it, it will stay."

Well, 5 minutes after I fed it, I had it in the house and was giving it a bath and it purred all the way through. It turned out the cat was white and grey and I promptly named it Fergus.

He never left and was quite possibly the best cat I've ever owned. I miss him a lot.

I found my cat last August, panting, and dealing with heat exhaustion on my porch... so I took him to the vet, telling them "Well I will pay to fix him up a bit, but I can't have a cat because of the dog and the expense and everything" and the vet tech looked at me and said "Uhh-huhh. What's his name?" and I looked at her sheepishly and said "Milo. I'm calling him Milo" and she smiled at me and laughed and said "Well I guess he's staying eh? You do know once you name something that's it yours right?"

And almost a year later, Milo is right now sleeping with my dog Chloe. You name it, you buy it.

We live in the country & therefore have to make the distinction between animals that have names & animals that aren't named. That is, the cats have names, but my daughter is not allowed to name the chickens.

I told her she could call the chickens by name as long as they were named Fried, Roasted, and Pot Pie, but that didn't go over too well.

I guess you better give us a picture, if were to love it and all.

Dudes know all about naming things...

Has anyone offered you a book deal yet??? Your posts are wonderful and you deserve to be PUBLISHED!
Just don't name ants-ewwww.

I recently picked up Fannie Flaggs's "Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man". I have to say, everytime I pick it up and start reading, I think of you. Even though it starts in the 50's, I envision you blogging it instead of her writing in her diary. ---and no, I'm not a wierd stalker, I don't think so anyway.

And although I've seen the movie, I've never read the book, so I'm picking up Fried Green Tomatoes next.

Haha, that's funny because I named the big scary spider in our bathroom "Ollie" in the hopes that that would make me less scared of the huge beast while I was taking showers right underneath him.

Now if anyone talks about killing him I'm like 'hey, no, that's Ollie, you can't kill OLLIE...'

:P

First off, Laurie.. don't take breaks. We miss you as much as you miss off. And spiders, they eat misquito's. (sp?) If that isn't enough reason to keep them around, I don't know what is. Some day I'll tell you about the big barn spider I had living out back.

And Drew, care to share with use what kind of names the dude uses? (winks)

Ok, I have never named a spider. I know they are (mostly) harmless to humans and that they take care of other bugs. But, spider?!? Eight! Legs! And that whole dropping down out of nowhere thing. Nope. Can't. Won't turn one into a pet. Not even a pseudo-pet.

But when I was a teen, we would go swimming at my Aunt's house (cause they had a pool, were almost never home and didn't care if we swam while they were gone!) and one summer, my mom, brother, sister and I showed up to find this tiny kitten roaming around by the pool. It's eyes were not open and it was just so pathetic. We were NOT allowed to have pets. Yet, I convinced my mom that we couldn't leave it to wonder into the pool and drownd. So we took it home, for the weekend, just till the Humane Shelter would open on Monday.

I left the kitten in my mom's care, after dubbing her Frances and spent the night at a friends.

Ha ha ha... in 12 hours "Franny" had a litter box, her own food dish and my mother wrapped around her paw.

She was a wonderful cat and was with us for many years (although we used to hide her and her contraband in the bathroom with the shower going when the land lord visited... hehehe)

Well, I made the mistake of fostering some kittens for the local Animal Shelter...five tiny kittens, to be exact, who arrived the day before the big fires here is southern CA last October, (and who I had to evacuate with me and mine during said fires). Anyway, I adopted out 3 of the kittens and have named and loved the last two - Angel and Elvis - who are STILL here seven months later. They don't belong to me, they are still county property...they THINK they belong to me and my other 4 cats and 2 dogs, but they really don't. My dilemma now? How do I tell my husband of 26 years that because I have named these gorgeous creatures, they are STAYING for the next, say, 15 years?! Does anyone want 2 tabbies who are very, very, very shy? And named!

Spider's are the original knitters. And if you get past the creepy exterior, you'll see they're really quite elegant. Oh - and when their men try to leave, they eat 'em. Rock on.

We had a giant nasty spider on our porch- we started calling it Shelob. And you're right, once we named it... we were sad in October when Shelob started moving less and less.

If it ever touched me, though? Squish city.

I name ALL spiders George. Why? Who knows. Maybe it's a genetic thing. My mom names all squirrels Frank.

I name the occasional spider on my property,usually by the door but out of my path. Those REALLY huge black and yellow garden spiders are the females. The males are much smaller and build a smaller web near a female and he hopes to attract her attention and be honored with her acknowledgement etc.etc.
Human males could take a little lesson from our arachnid friends maybeeee

I saw this comic strip today and thought of you & Charlotte:
a href=http://tinyurl.com/odyqm

That should be:
http://tinyurl.com/odyqm

I have the infomercial gene. Wanna come over and watch "Jack LaLanne's Amazing Juicer" and maybe drink some wine? :)

That dream sounds like Mr X is leaving your mind for good.
Mia