Quote Originally Posted by james
having a spider as a "pet" is a bit strange.its not like you call spidy & he runs to you.
That's not a very nice thing to say, IMO. LOTS of pets don't "run to you" when you call ... fish, many birds, most reptiles ... in fact, one the only species of pet that consistently comes when called, as a rule, is a dog. Does that make all the others "strange" pets? I find that to be quite a narrow critera.

We used to hold our tarantula all the time. Once she got used to us, if we put our hand in her cage, she would come over and climb up. She liked the warmth of our hands. She never, ever attempted to bite. I wasn't actually aware that rosy tarantulas could even bite a human. ?? They do, however, "throw hairs" when startled. They throw the little hairs on their bodies, much like a porcupine does. It is a defense mechanism. It's not painful ... but it DOES itch a LOT. It took me a long time to get up the nerve to hold her, because she was so BIG. But once I got over it, I found her to be very sweet.