escapee

Hey, this is my 500th post! How 'bout that?

Anyways, I decided I'd share the tarantula story first (since nothing of note has happened in the five days since my last post).

As mentioned, I work at a pet store. It's a small, locally owned little shop called Critter Corner. We don't sell dogs or cats, which doesn't stop at least half a dozen people from asking me that every day, but we do sell small animals like hamsters, rats, mice, guinea pigs, etc. And we sell reptiles and amphibians, and fish, birds, scorpions, and... you guessed it... tarantulas.

Have I mentioned that I hate spiders yet? Well, I do. There's just no reason for anything to have that many legs. Seriously.

Moving on, this story takes place about two months ago. We had three rosehair tarantulas for sale, each in their own little Critter Keeper thingamajig. Then one day, one of these tarantulas -- the biggest one, go figure -- turns up missing. And when I say it went missing, I don't mean that the lid fell off of its container and it escaped or it karate chopped its way out--no, it was just gone. The lid was secured; the container was still in one piece. The spider pulled a Casper and went through a solid wall.

So the six of us that work there spend the next three days scouring the store for this lost spider. Of course we don't find it. The store may be small, but it's got plenty of dark crevasses for creepy crawlers to hide.

On the third day of the missing spider, me and Dan were closing together. Everybody's gone, we're getting ready to leave. We put on our coats, I stick my hand into my pocket for my car keys, and my hand closes around something multi-legged and furry.

THE SPIDER WAS IN MY POCKET!!!

So I let out a blood-curdling scream, which Dan makes fun of me for to this day, and I throw my coat across the room. Well, Dan doesn't like spiders any more than I do, so we spend the next 15 minutes arguing over who was going to pick it up and put it back.

I lost.

*shudder*