Minding my own business and reading a book. I had a blanket on my lap, a kitty to go with it (Fenster!) and talking to Jackie, Jack and Mark. I was petting Fenster, who normally doesn’t let anyone pet her, let alone go sit on their lap, so both of us were pretty much in heaven.

A couple of minutes later I saw Fenster was sniffing at something intensely on the blanket and looked down at it. To my big surprise there was a huge (to my standards) spider sitting on the blanket just taking a rest.

Before I knew it I flung my arms and upper body to the side and yelled out something incoherent (later to be identified as ‘Spin’ the Dutch word for Spider).

“What?” Was the overall response to that, while Fenster purred happily along on my lap.

I answered with a loud and clear “Spider!”

They just stood there.

I had no other choice but to try and get Fenster off my lap quickly and gently and not scar the poor cat for life and get away from the Spider as fast as I could. Once I got off the couch I ran to the nearest person (which happened to be Jackie) and got out a croaked “Spider, blanket!” before nearly leaping behind the kitchen counter.

Jackie grabbed herself some paper towels and went after the Spider. After she grabbed it, it jumped and she lost it again. Not sure how she got it after that, but she got rid of it.

I had never seen that big a spider unless it was on Television. I could have sworn it was as big as my cellphone.

We (mostly they) had a good laugh about it after and now they too saw the extend of my Spider fear.