Spiders

Mr Hippo has just come inside from rummaging through the Casa Del Hippo Annex, also referred to in the common language as the garage where he was searching high and low through the assorted treasures that constitute the Hippo Family Heirlooms for his Camping Equipment.


While searching, he discovered an amazing array of spiders inhabiting every nook and cranny.


When he picked up his Coleman Stove he saw an especially big black shiny one duck inside. Mr Hippo, who fancies himself a bit of a Arachnophile, immediately thought "Black Widow", and after making sure the spider in question was safely inside his lair and would not even consider a mad dash across the open Annex floor, did what any concerned Hippo husband and father would do.


He ran inside to the kitchen to get a transparent tupperware container to catch the spider to share with his family.


Upon returning to the annex, he oh so carefully opened the lid of the Coleman Stove and found his prey. A bit of gentle coaxing got the spider to a place where Mr Hippo could nudge the spider into the container and pop the lid on.


You can hardly imagine Mr Hippos great disappointment when he turned the tupperware container so that he could see the underside of the spider, and the tell tale red hourglass marking was not there.


Mr Hippo gave a heavy sigh and released the spider to go about his business, which due to the unsuspecting nature of spiders probably did NOT include preparing to meet his maker, because 5 seconds after giving the spider his freedom, Mr Hippo thought better of it and squished the spider flat, resulting in a rather large black spider grease spot right in the middle of the annex floor.


Mr Hippo considers, that on reflection, it is probably better that it wasn't a black widow spider, because he hates to imagine the uproar that would have occurred had Mrs Hippo and their children come home this afternoon to find a spider in a tupperware container, in the middle of the dining room table, sitting on top of a sign in bold red letters saying "Black widow spider inside, do NOT open."