What would you do?

This afternoon just before going out for a run I noticed a spider in my bathtub. Not just a little spider mite but a big full fledged quarter sized spider! I don't know how it got there, it must have come up through the drain and maybe has something to do with all the rain we had yesterday. The spider was moving around a lot but every time he tried to climb the tub wall he slid back down to the bottom. But I wasn't about to leave him on his own in the apartment while I was out running. On the other hand I most certainly wasn't going to touch the creepy crawly guy. It was only mid-afternoon so the neighbor whose door I thought about banging on wasn't home. I was all alone, just me and the spider.

Deep down I know that spiders are good beings and one really shouldn't kill a spider unless necessary. It occurred to me that if I could get it in a bucket I could dispose of the spider in the courtyard somewhere. I was not going to release it on my balcony where it could easily reenter when I wasn't looking. So I got out my bucket, put it on it's side in the tub and grabbed a newspaper to swipe the spider into the bucket. The bucket, however, has a large lip on it, as soon as I put it into the tub I saw there was no way the spider was going to be swept into it. Of course when the bucket dropped into the tub the spider scurried around and I let out a small scream. This wasn't going well.

I don't have a different bucket without a large lip, and wasn't willing to contaminate anything from the kitchen. What to do? Then I remembered I had in my storage closet a souvenir plastic red Devo hat left by a visiting friend. It was just the thing, smooth plastic the spider couldn't crawl up, a thin edge to lay flat against the tub floor and an opening small enough to be covered by a newspaper just in case. I summoned all my courage, grabbed the red plastic hat and executed the plan perfectly. The spider was easily swept into the hat with the newspaper which then covered the opening until I ran out to the balcony turned the hat upside down and hurled the spider out onto the courtyard below. I had done it, the spider was out of my home and no killing necessary!

I did have a friend who offered to come by and get rid of the spider for me after I texted him with my crisis. His reply came only after I had resolved things, but it was nice to know reinforcements were at the ready if needed. Maybe next time there is a spider in my house I'll deal with it a little more quickly with a little less drama. But then again when I took shower after my run every time by back was turned to the drain all I could think of was enormous spiders crawling out of it!