So I cajoled Mark into coaxing our new lodger back down into the street outside. Mark gingerly approached the spider with a bit of paper and stretched up towards him. He sort of fell onto the paper and as we started to transport him to this new home, he managed to scuttle away. He sprinted under the wheels of my bike and disappeared into the darkness outside. Or so we thought.

This morning I spotted him a little further down the wall. Having to come face to face with him every time we exited and entered our building was a tad too much for me. So I once again begged Mark to release him into the sunshine outside. This time the transplant was successful.

As Mark placed him onto a seemingly vacant cobweb, a much smaller spider came out of nowhere and attacked. Our spider, being much larger, enveloped him and they became one. I turned away, because I am a bit squeamish but Mark later related that our spider was not the aggressor. He merely started to explore this wild and untamed land only to be attacked for no reason. Obviously the smaller spider felt threatened and this was probably his cobweb. We had interfered with nature, but it’s my sincere belief that our spider would have found that web located just a few feet outside our front door anyway. Therefore my conscience is clear.

Check out the photo of our alpha-spider. What a fine specimen he is!