Doing my part for tarantula PR

[Gail]

Well, the other day the two maintience men for the apartments had to come over to fix my thermostate. Yea, I know, why did it take two? Well. they both know that I have tarantulas and alone, neither one of them could get up the nerve to look at them, so I guess they figured they would boost each others bravado or something to that effect. Now, first, you must picture these two - early 30's, very happy and go-lucky, - they are two big "kids" with not a mean bone in their bodies and totally lovable. Always playing practical jokes on each other, etc. So, the one is fixing the thermostate and the other is watching and I could see, that just like a couple of little kids, they were hoping I'd mentin the T's so I indulged them and said "Gee, I'm glad you're getting that fixed because I have to keep it at 72 degrees for my spiders." So after much proding of each other, these two come into the spider room to see what these giant spiders are all about. At first they were terrified, but when I showed them how gentle the chacos and versicolors were they became totally facinated. Although they didn't want to touch them, they were down on their hands and knees so they could look into every cage on the lower shelf and they wanted to know all about them. And just like children, the one got bored after a bit and went out to the living room while the other one continued to grill me for every tarantula fact I could summon. So I go to see him out and the other knuckle head is rolling around on the living room floor playing with the cats. Cracks me up. I don't know if one can consider turning these two spider haters/fearers into two "spiders are really cool" people was such a victory but hey, we take whatever ground we can gain, right? LOL

Gail

 

[Code Monkey]

Wish my situation was like that. Every time maintenance comes into my place I've got to hide everybody in the closet. This place has a "no poisonous pets" rule and while I know tarantulas aren't *poisonous*, something tells me the management isn't going to buy my explanation
Further, because they are very strict about anything bigger than a single goldfish in general, they pay bonuses to the maintenance staff that busts people for unauthourised pets. I think they'd have a field day punting my ass out of here for 32 Ts and 2 pedes plus the roaches, black widows, and other bugs.

 

[galeogirl]

Gail,

You're my hero for today. I love it when we can introduce people to our pets and they walk away feeling positive about the experience.

CM,

I'm so sorry to hear about your rental policy, that's terrible! I used to have to hide my Burmese python from my landlord and it was always nerve-wracking. I'm sure that woman was wondering why I had such an enormous entertainment center when I only had a rinkydink tv and portable stereo. =D

 

[JacenBeers]

When I used to live in dorms it was forbidden to have pets of any kind at all except fish. I had a bunch of tarantulas of course and when maintenance came i always moved all their vages into my closet and threw a blanket over top of them. One day I didnt have time to do that and the maintenance guy was summoned by one of my roommates and he saw all of my spiders in my room and was fascinated. He promised he wouldnt tell the management and he looked at them and he was impressed. The next day there was a knock on our door and it was theis big scary Frenchman named Jacques. He is the manager. He looked down at me and said, "SO I HEAR YOU HAVE SPIDERS." I didnt lie so i said...YEAH I DO. ANd he proceeded to come look at them and give me the green light to keep them. It was great. The next day he kicked some girl out of the dorms for having a pet lizard.

 

[conipto]

Just today, I had the building exterminator come by to spray again. He asked 'So have you had any problems with bugs lately' and my roommate yells, 'Yeah, there's 6 giant f**king spiders in the corner.' It took a great deal of explanation, but the exterminator finally left the porch and decided we must be insane to purposefully want bugs here. He promised not to come back

Bill.

P.S. - Gail - good work, now you just gotta get them to cross the line and get a few

 

[AlbinoDragon829]

Originally posted by JacenBeers
The next day he kicked some girl out of the dorms for having a pet lizard.

LMAO!! Wow, talk about irony.

 

[Gail]

Actually we are very fortunate here in that we can pretty much have anything that we want. The place is owned by a total a-hole, but it is managed by a woman who is totally cool about the pets thing. She feels it's "her" complex and if "she" can deal with the pets then it's none of the "a-holes" business. It actually does state in the lease "no pets allowed" but we moved here because we had two cats and when we asked if we could bring them she said yes. The lady across the hall has a rabbit and a cockatiel and I think fish. One lady has a big fat black lab that is all love and kisses. Almost everyone has cats. The guy downstairs has an African Grey that always cracks me up with it's talking. He made a video of it once by setting up a camcorder on a timer to prove what a devil it was. He placed a clock so you could see it in the video. Five minutes after he left for work you see this bird unlatching his cage, walking across the counter and flicking on the lights. He then proceeds to get into everything. The camcorder turned off after 20 minutes and then came back on 10 minutes before the guy was going to come home from work. The bird turns off the light, goes into his cage and latches it. Smart enough to know about the light and the latch but not smart enough to clean up his mess LOL!

Gail

 

[Joy]

Originally posted by Gail
I don't know if one can consider turning these two spider haters/fearers into two "spiders are really cool" people was such a victory but hey, we take whatever ground we can gain, right? LOL

Gail [/B]

Of course it's a victory! Every inch of ground gained is all to the good And since these things have a ripple effect, there's no telling how many people you may end up ultimately influencing!

Joy

 

[wayneo]

There was this lady approx. 10 miles from were I lived and she kept 30 some snakes and about 20 were venomous. My dad who works for the telephone company that services that area was told that no employee is to go there alone(she is a nut case) they had to bring 2 ppl one to work and one to watch the others back. She has since been forced to leave Manitowoc county because on a winter night she brought her Indian cobra to bed with her and it bit her and it costed us tax payers hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep her alive since they had to get anti-venom from over seas. She could have stayed in the county but in order to do so she had to keep anti-venom serum for each snake on hand at the local hospital so she opted to leave. On the several times i visited her I was able to hold the same cobra and also a gaboon viper, also after taking my mom, sister and niece there my mom allowed me to get my first boa constrictor.


Wayne H.