Did you ever have a class gerbil or other small furry animal? It can be fun to get together with a group to take care of an animal. It’s great for learning some responsibility when you’re young. One neighborhood banded together to raise an animal, but it wasn’t the usual furry, cuddly kind. No. They discovered a giant Holconia huntsman spider in one of their mailboxes, and instead of whacking the thing with a newspaper all the neighborhood kids decided they would work together to raise the spider, who happened to be protecting an egg sack. The spider was dubbed Hortense, short for Hortense Protector of the Post.
But the story doesn’t end there. The kids have been waiting for weeks for Hortense’s baby spiders to burst free from their eggs and join the party. They even asked some of the state’s highest scientific authorities for incubation advice. Well, the long awaited day finally came, and Hortense’s eggs hatched. Hundreds of baby spiders swarmed inside the mailbox, with Hortense standing guard. Doesn’t that sound like heaven?
Did you raise an animal with your class when you were younger? What would you do if you found a giant spider protecting her eggs in a mailbox?
