alexpgp | The large and the small of it...

So there I was, at the shelter yesterday, trying to endow Lucky with traits that might make him more "adoptable," when my attention was drawn to a familiar whup-whup sound in the sky.

There was a firefighting helicopter in the air, hauling what appeared to be a teeny, tiny tank of water. And although the rotors were chopping air for all they were worth, I could not help but recall the story of The Little Engine That Could, because the aircraft seemed to be battling a headwind (the Little Sand fire is to the left of the frame), and the angle at which it was dragging that tank seemed awfully... ambitious.

Then today, around mid-morning, Galina called me to the garage to show me what our cat Zorra had brought back from its meanderings around the property.

This specimen was about 2 inches long, carrying one rather ungainly egg case (with what would appear to be a tiny ladybug corpse hanging from the side, not unlike the way Reavers festoon their space ships with the corpses of their victims, but I digress... ).

The arachnid seemed rather calm, all things considered. (Then again, after dealing with Zorra, having to keep an eye—or a dozen—on my ugly mug probably represented a lower DEFCON level, in spider terms.)

After the photo shoot, I planted her (I'm pretty much guessing a male wouldn't be caught, um, dead carrying an egg case) in a protected area under the veranda on the back side of the house. (As you can probably guess, spider eradication is not one of my priorities in life.)

Cheers...