Spiderman

It happened again lastnight. I was cleaning up after feeding the dogs before heading downstairs to watch On board Airforce One. I noticed immediately; I hadn't even gotten down the stairs as I noticed that Luke was staring at his couch bed. My husband and son were already enthralled in the show and hadn't seen that he was standing there in a trance. He was standing with his giant ears up staring straight down at somewhere behind his bed.

There is only one thing that causes this body posture and it is spiders. Had it been a lizard; there would have been wagging along with the staring. Being that we have alot of Black widows around here I always listen to Luke's spider detector and take action. We also had a possible spider bite incident over a year ago with Tilley's tail (go to previous posts at the bottom of this post to read more about her tail. Warning gross; read with caution) so no spider goes undetected in this house.

We never intentionally taught Luke to seek out spiders but being that both my husband and my son have arachnophobia; perhaps this is where it came from. But over the years Luke has been praised over and over again for finding spiders. I have always tried to teach him that once found he was to never bite the spider. He is pretty good most of the time and leaves the job to me.

He will stand staring at the evil enemy until someone does something about it. He stands frozen in his "I found a spider" position looking slowly from the spider to myself and back again. He expects us to take action; which I ultimately do. There have been times when I'm busy about the house and upon passing by the livingroom notice him standing there. Who knows how long he has been standing frozen in his spider posture but as soon as I get close he backs up with excitement waiting for the kill.

Once the spider is killed he has a sniff and is good to go. All is well in the Regalbuto household again. But I always wonder what a spider smells like. They must indeed have a quite distinct scent as he is able to find the tiniest of spiders anywhere. But when you think about it; many insects are vegetarians, spiders are predatory which may lend itself to having a greater and more pudgent scent.

But whatever they smell like; Luke knows the smell well. This is a natural ability of his which although we never taught him to do we have praised him for his amazing ability. Dogs truly are amazing.