by subtearanean » Wed Jun 13, 2007 9:55 pm
Many many years ago I worked in a pet store that was one of the very few in the area to carry the "exotics". I had been working already for a couple of years in a science museum / zoo caring for the animals they kept for display, and had already been exposed to quite a wide range of creatures. I prided myself as being unafraid of most anything.
At the pet shop our main business was saltwater and freshwater tropicals. Pretty much the entire day was filled with fish tank maintenance, bagging fish for customers, diagnosing fish ills, etc. Bored the hell out of me.
The part I found most fun was taking care of the lizards, snakes, turtles, small animals. I volunteered so many times to maintain these animals that it eventually became expected (much to the delight of most of the other employees who were not found of the scaly things).
We had tarantulas, usually the Mexican Red Knee and the Brown. We'd get them at 3 - 4 inches across average size. All would settle in pretty quickly to the routine of the shop.
I would only need to clean their cages (each was housed separately, cut down on mortality) once a week or so, and would feed them 2 or 3 times a week. Easy pets to have.
While cleaning the cage I would pull the spider out by slowly pushing my hand under it's legs, it would more often than not climb right on. I would then usually put it on my shoulder and get to the business of cleaning the cages (a dry fish tank, in this case). At times, to get things done faster, I would have a spider on each shoulder. This was able to be viewed from the customer area of the shop, eventually there would be a small crowd that might gather.
One day, deep in the swing of this, the shop got real busy. I was called out to assist in bagging fish up etc. I dutifully responded.
In the midst of bagging the 4th or 5th fish the customers, a couple of older women (they could have been 30 years old to 80 years old, I was 15 or 16 at the time) noticed something move on my shoulder. One froze in place, mouth agape, letting out a soft high pitched squeal. The other woman looked over at me and basically did the same, but the soft high pitch became somewhat more blood curdling. They exited the store rather quickly. I, of course, had forgotten they were on my shoulders, and had no idea what was going on.
I was forbidden to shoulder the spiders after that.
But the Madagascan Hissing Cockroach hidden up my sleeve was OK to do. And the baby Boa in the top pocket. And they were almost as effective.