Spiders, Poison Frogs & a Dragon

History teacher Mrs. Spencer and her husband own 24 pets, including 9 tarantulas. One escaped for a week.
By Skylar Reiner
Staff Writer
 
Mrs. Spencer has a lot to juggle these days, from teaching Middle School History at Woodlynde to taking care of her son. She also has to worry about the 24 pets she and her husband own, including nine tarantulas and an African Pyxie Frog, which is bigger than a dinner plate and can tear off your skin if it bites you.

Life got even more stressful one night while she was putting her son to bed. Her husband told her that Cranky, one of the tarantulas, had escaped and was somewhere in their basement.

“Needless to say, I was not pleased when he told me this,” Mrs. Spencer said.

Her husband “spent several nights frantically searching for the spider,” to no avail. Fortunately Cranky was found a week later “just chilling on the wall behind the dryer.”  

Most of the pets that live in Mrs. Spencer's house belong to her husband, who collects them as a hobby. He keeps them in the basement of their home, away from their 4-year-old son.

Even so, Mrs. Spencer admits to worrying about the animals escaping, which is why “My son is never allowed down there without supervision... ”

Strangely enough, while Mrs. Spencer is fine with her husband keeping lizards, spiders and skin-tearing frogs, she absolutely won’t allow birds.

“They make a lot of noise and get feathers
and seeds all over the floor,” said Mrs. Spencer.

She also refuses to have snakes in her house.

“I am terrified of snakes – everything about them. I always have been. I am also concerned that snakes are notoriously good at escaping, their bites can be painful and dangerous even when they are not venomous, and constrictors could easily hurt or kill one of our other animals.”

It’s bad enough Mrs. Spencer has to worry about the dangerous bite of the African Pyxie Frog, which has sharp, teeth-like ridges along the inside of its mouth. “If they bite you,”  Mrs. Spencer said. “... it will hurt just as much as teeth, if not more.”

She added, “I do not handle these animals, so I have never been bit, but my husband has once and he has made sure that it never happened again!”

Mrs. Spencer’s husband spends about 15 minutes every morning and 20 to 30 minutes each night taking care of the pets. On weekends, he’ll spend a couple of hours cleaning their cages.

"It’s a lot of work," she said. "I only really take care of the cats.”

Mr. and Mrs. Spencer do not get most of their pets from a store. “... many of our animals are adopted or rehomed,” Mrs. Spencer said. “... we want our care to be good for them.”

She went on to add, “Our animals are either in the exact habitat they should be in – like tarantulas, for example... or they are in some way unable to survive without care – like our bearded dragon, Adelaide, who was born without a rear foot.”

Middle School Reading teacher
Mrs. Kruk thinks it is really interesting that her colleague has all these wild pets in her home.

“I think she is very generous to let her husband have all these pets. One time the tarantula [went] missing in the basement for several days. I know I could not go back in the basement after that.”
 
24 Pets
Mrs. Spencer and her husband have a total of 24 pets.

“Right now, we have a dog, two cats, six leopard geckos, two frog-eyed geckos, four crested geckos, one bearded dragon, two African fat-tail geckos, two fire belly toads, a tree frog, a giant African Pyxie frog, four Pacman frogs, two poison dart frogs (that are not actually poisonous because they were raised in captivity), nine tarantulas of five different species, and three tanks of fish – one of freshwater tropical fish and two betta tanks.”

The Day “Cranky”, 
the Tarantula Escaped
 
“Once, my husband was changing enclosures for some of his tarantulas and accidentally snapped the plastic door on one of the enclosures. He fixed it with duct tape, closed it up, and planned to get a new part the next day.

By the time he checked on Cranky, the cobalt tarantula, the next day, he was gone. Needless to say, I was not pleased when he told me this.

We sealed the gap under the basement door, made sure that the door was locked for kids, dogs, and cats, and he spent several nights frantically searching for the spider.

Finally, about a week later, he was doing laundry and Cranky was just chilling on the wall behind the dryer. (They seek out warmth, so this made sense.)

My husband quickly grabbed a bowl, trapped it between the bowl and the wall and called me from this awkwardly leaning position to come down and help him.

I got him a lidded container, a chopstick to nudge it in, and a few other things, and within a few minutes, Cranky was home in his enclosure again!

Since then, we have upgraded to special herp enclosures with locking doors and shatterproof glass. That’s never going to happen again!”
 
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Woodlynde School is a private, co-ed college prep day school located in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that serves intelligent, talented students with learning differences in grades K - 12. Woodlynde provides a comprehensive, evidence-based Kindergartenelementarymiddle and high school program in a challenging yet nurturing environment for students with average to above average cognitive abilities (IQ) who have language- or math-based learning differences (such as Dyslexia, Dysgraphia or Dyscalculia), Executive Function Challenges, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), or Auditory Processing Disorder. Even for those students without a diagnosed learning disability (LD), Woodlynde offers expert and caring teachers in small classroom settings that support academic success. Woodlynde School also offers a post-graduate (PG) program in partnership with Rosemont College as well as a regional Summer Camp for students who learn differently.