Arachnophobia

I generally like spiders.  I do whatever I can to be hospitable and welcoming to 'em. I appreciate their willingness to take up residence in my gardens and eat bugs all day and night, hosing up those mosquitos and beetles and whatever else that'd otherwise be eating me or my prized woodlands.  Even in my house I don't kill 'em. I may escort them to someone else's bedroom, but at least they live to fight (and eat) another day.

But I was just now watching the sun set over the lake when I noticed a HUGE spider lurking on the screen door - outside, thankfully.  And not just any spider - a big, hairy, ugly, hungry-looking, beast of a Special Forces attack-spider-on-steroids.  So big that when I flicked it off the screen from the inside, I heard a 'plop' as it hit the deck and skittered off.  Blech.  

Maybe I shoulda left it alone.  I probably just made it mad.  Uh-oh.  Now I know what's been happening to the shrinking population of neighborhood cats.  Life in the Great Suburban Outback is sure fraught with peril.