Arachnophobes & Ophidiophobics Beware!

Gimli: Dare was a BIG, ugly spider that reared up at us and GrandPaw saveded us!

Guess WHAT!! Papa has decided that he is going to keep me and he gived me a new name. I am Pippin! Pip, for short, now!

BG: It is THAT time of the year! The Tarantulas are ON THE MOVE!

You can see them out hunting for their mates on the roads as you drive around this area. This year isn’t too bad, according to Mom, as they’ve only seen one or two a day on the roads going into town.

Well, guess what!!!??? We found one in the back yard where the puppies were playing. I thought their GrandPaw, Robert, was going to have a coronary!

He wouldn’t even let the pups check it out, but hurriedly got an old Hockey stick to pick it up with and put it out of the yard. How, I ask you, are they to LEARN things if they aren’t given the chance to sneak up on things like that!

At least he let us older ones out so that we could get a closer look at it. (Linda: At this point there WAS a video of Dott, BG & Sadie getting a close look, but heavy winds and dust storms cause problems for dial-up... or Blogger has refused to load it for the past TWO DAYS... GROWL!!! I gave up! )

Not only are the Tarantulas OUT, but the snakes are starting to come IN. I guess it is getting kind of cold out for them, so they try to find warm places to stay, and our hay room is usually nice and warm. Mom was a bit surprised when my little ex-mistress went out to help feed the horses and noticed this fellow visiting.

Mom looked at him really well and saw that he wasn’t a poisonous type, so was happy to have him in the tackroom to help keep the mice down. She IS being rather more careful to look around, though when she goes out to feed now. Garter snakes might not have BIG fangs, but they’ve got a lot of sharp little teeth that would hurt if they latched on to you! This one was about 4 ft. long... almost as long as a bale of hay!

Apparently, Dad has decided to keep that little "Pip Squeak," and I've been finding him in MY Dad's lap a lot lately. I am NOT very happy about that even though Dad says he still loves me, too and we will soon be great friends... Yeah?... Right! (Dripping sarcasm...)