Misunderstood Critters

Much of my life is spent in the car nowadays, and so a lot of my prime entertainment comes from reading the "signs" that other people add to their cars. Some of them are basic and boring, of course, like the "My child is an honor student at . . ." stickers. Others are cryptic club references, making me wonder if they are part of a special soccer team, an exclusive car group, or perhaps an underground scrapbooking society. (Gotta keep that secret!) Some of my more recent favorites include the "In memory of" writing on the windows. Then I get to invent some tragic way that this person must have died to merit rear window immortalization. Eight car pileup? Murdered by a spurned lover? Suicide bomber?

However, on my morning drive to M's school, I pulled up to a car with the most intriguing sign I've come across:

Amazing Tarantulas!

Giving Big, Hairy Spiders a Good Name

http://www.amazingtarantulas.com/

Now that was food for speculation! Are tarantulas endangered? Are they truly maligned, misunderstood creatures? Or was this some kind of cryptic code for another kind of "club?" Possibly someone trying to sell a new line of insectile products? What could they possibly be advertising????

My curiosity was insatiable by the time I got home, and I immediately visited the website. Guess what? It really is a website whose goal is to highlight all the wonderful things about tarantulas. I read through a little bit and found myself actually wondering if I was perhaps unfair to feel like retching at the sight of one of the poor creatures. It seems the webmaster actually keeps a large collection of tarantulas and offers presentations to people in the Phoenix area. I wonder if M would like to have a tarantula themed birthday party?

On a very positive note, I learned on the website that tarantulas are very happy to eat crickets!!! Maybe I should get a few tarantulas and set them loose in my house.