The Amazing Spider Dog?

Mom made me a new costume.

Spider Dog? More like attacked by a spider!

Mom ordered the spider on Amazon.com. She thought it would be bigger. Great, a bigger spider. (Yes, I understand sarcasm.)
We picked up The Boy and went to the church where we work on Tuesdays and Thursdays. There was a Festival in the parking lot. The Boy had a lot of fun.

I was scheduled to be the prop in the truck bed at the Trunk or Treat. Mom was going to drape a big spider web and put me under it. Thankfully, she couldn’t find the web she wanted. Plus, she saw how much fun I was having at the Festival. So she had pitty on me and didn’t make me wear this dreadful thing. Instead, I got to lay in the truck with the spider and the candy. Everyone came by and said how pretty I was while they took away my candy, piece by piece.

At first I wasn’t too sure about this spider next to me. Hoping I wouldn’t end up wearing it.

We made peace. It stays there and I stay here.

Updates and Mowing and Camouflage

Mommy was pulling weeds in my dog lot alongside the house this morning when she about “jumped out of her skin,” as she put it. Right over her head was a writing spider. Her first thought was to “whack” it, then she remembered Charlotte. It looked a lot like Charlotte, but too small.

Mini-Charlotte

So she left mini-Charlotte alone and got out the mower. Have I mentioned that it has both rained and sunned a lot here lately? The grass was so deep and thick that the mower barely got through it. Mom decided to call a neighbor who cuts grass to do the rest of the steeply-sloped yard. She took a picture partway through mowing in case anyone would like to see how tall the dog lot grass was.

 Grass. You know, Mom, this is so boring.

We walked around the back of the house and lo and behold, there was Charlotte way down by Dad’s office window. She had built a big, new web and was patiently waiting for her next victim. Update #1, Charlotte is alive and well, and has apparently expanded her territory. Her old web is intact, too. Perhaps she is building a franchise.

This is Charlotte’s underside. I think she was busy sucking the juice out of something.

Update #2: Our BFF in PA is doing much better. Some of you may remember when we went up there earlier in the summer. The hospital bed is gone from the living room and she can walk with crutches now. Her leg is healing real good and she can even go up the stairs to her bedroom and bathroom. Next will be the repair on her hip, and I hope that means another trip for me and Mom. My away-from-home- dad, Buddy, misses me and I miss him too.

Now for the camouflage.

Can you find us? Hint: red dog on red sheets; black and gray dog on black and gray bed.

You may notice I was careful to only put my silver-colored paw on the gray part of the bed. Mom found us anyhow. I think the bow gave me away.

I am Lexi, the camouflage, spider-watching schnauzer.

I don’t want to turn into Spiderdog

Mom hates bugs of any kind. So when she investigated what Riley and I were staring at on the patio floor and found it was a small lizard caught by a spider’s web, she set the little guy free.

She then got her broom and started knocking down the many webs around the patio floor, furniture and ceiling, finally moving outside to get any there. Imagine her wide-eyed, try-to-hold-it-together, freeze-in-place look when she saw this creature under the house eaves just outside the screened patio.

Unidentified, scary spider

The markings on its back look white in the pic but are yellow. Notice the distinctive web design in the lower left of the bottom pic. It looks like a phone cord.

Can anyone tell us

1. What kind of spider this is and
2.  If it is dangerous and
3. If Mom should kill it? (she is leaning toward death to all spiders)

(Notice I got to use my counting skills!)

Oh, and did I mention it is big!