When I got home from work today, I saw a medium-sized brown spider... barely visible on my floor because he was the same coloring. Which is ultimately my way of saying that I barely avoided stepping on a spider when I got home because I didn't notice him until the last second.

Then I did what I always do... run and get a small paper cup and a piece of stiff paper so I can scoop him up and take him outside. It's just a small kindness towards a Tony life that feels better than squishing the poor thing who happened to end up in the wrong place.

After dumping him in the shade outside my front door, the little guy started SPRINTING towards my front door. He was perfectly happy indoors, and decided that's where he was going to be.

After yelping while jumping back and saying "GAH! YOU DON'T WANT TO GO BACK IN THERE... MY CATS WILL EAT YOU!" I jumped inside and closed the door in time to keep him on the other side of it.

Then went to a window so I could look at him glaring at the front door.

I should not be surprised at all if he's back inside tomorrow.

For much of my adult life I've lived in upstairs apartments. Spider sightings were blissfully rare, and I never had to worry much about creepy-crawlies. Then six years ago I moved into my current home which is at ground level. And while there's not a lot of spider activity, there's more than I've been accustomed to. Much to the delight of my cats, who thrill at playing with a spider for a while before ultimately eating it then puking it up.

I don't want to kill anything, but I don't want to have to clean up cat puke either, so I invested in a box of those tiny paper Dixie cups specifically to be used for catching bugs and transporting them outside. They work great, and can be tossed afterwards so I don't risk dying from spider germs being deposited on my drinking glasses.

Today I found a weird tan spider by my cloak closet and went to get a Dixie cup so I can take him outside. After putting him in the shady part of my flower garden, I decided to count how many cups were missing so I could determine how many spiders I've saved over the years.

The answer is thirty-four.

That's thirty-four times I made the choice to not splat a spider with my shoe but instead set him free. I'd like to think that there's some future karma benefit at work here for me here... but the fact that I'm lucky enough to have a home in the first place is enough for me.