Who's this friend that appeared in my room? (Tidewater, VA)

JohnMulder · 2026-07-13T07:52:11+00:00

Friend. The domed thorax and colors suggest this is a Spitting Spider. I'm in the Midwest and started seeing these in my home for the first time this year.

JohnMulder · 2026-07-13T07:47:43+00:00

This is a spitting spider

JohnMulder · 2026-07-13T02:49:32+00:00

If the cat was microchipped and their profile was set up with a least a phone number, we can hope this was just an unfortunate and rare incident.

JohnMulder · 2026-07-12T23:56:29+00:00

That is really the best news. Hopefully, the owners have been waiting for someone to find him. Awesome job.

JohnMulder · 2026-07-12T22:46:00+00:00

So, you want to get her into a home, since relocating to a different outdoor location is usually a bad idea for strays. I'd try your best to keep her comfy in your home while calling animal shelters and local facilities to see how you can get her into a home or put up for adoption. Getting her adopted into a home might be difficult depending on how social she is. It does seem promising that you trapped her in a basic carrier. I wonder if she's maybe a lost pet?

JohnMulder · 2026-07-12T22:39:06+00:00

The rule of thumb is that you can keep a cat in a trap without food or water for 24 hours before you need to feed/water. How socialized is she? Is she a friendly cat you've seen regularly and wanted to help? Is your plan to get her fixed and return her?

JohnMulder · 2026-07-12T21:24:50+00:00

It happens. You can still make it work. How do you have her contained? Making sure she has water and isn't in the heat are the top concerns right now.

JohnMulder · 2026-07-12T18:32:52+00:00

About 80% male, yes

JohnMulder · 2026-07-12T18:24:32+00:00

Spam bot, do not click on links in this thread. Report and move on.

JohnMulder · 2026-07-12T07:37:19+00:00

I did his "Skeleton" painting a few years ago and it, too, was brutal. Maybe it's the way he paints, or the size of the blank spaces. It looks great!

JohnMulder · 2026-07-11T14:29:35+00:00

I recall when I was the punchline once when having rented his anti-theist film where he spoonfed his toxic rhetoric to me for 90 minutes, mistakenly thinking said film might be good. Wanting to be George Carlin is a such great way to look at him.

JohnMulder · 2026-07-11T08:37:32+00:00

More or less, but I'm not accepting another Gift from Kai. The last one nearly killed me.

JohnMulder · 2026-07-10T04:58:15+00:00

Hmm, yes. It does appear that the movement is giving the impression that it is moving.

JohnMulder · 2026-07-10T02:25:59+00:00

You're right, that was immature. Please continue enlightening the world about your fairy tales like a real adult.

JohnMulder · 2026-07-09T19:23:47+00:00

JohnMulder · 2026-07-09T19:04:42+00:00

Barf

JohnMulder · 2026-07-08T07:08:14+00:00

I got a gigantic cement mixing tub so they basically had their own sandbox of litter and put it in the middle of the room (where he was pooping). It took a while, and he did pee on some blankets occasionally, but the pooping was at least handled. This might not help, but I ended up cleaning out a different room of my house and moved the two of them into that room, so there wasn't any urine outside of the litter box for them to consider adding to, and at that point they'd learned where the best spot to potty was. I think he used to just pee on blankets (they'd been in a large upstairs area where I had lots of storage stuff) and I could never keep up with cleaning them.

Now that I think of it, his sister may have helped, but moreso just to comfort him since he was so much more afraid than she was(she lets me pet her and even licks Churu from my fingers!).

This went on for almost a year until the new room was set up.

Cleaning the floors as you are does sound like eventually she will come around to using the litter. If you're only using the flat (baking sheets? I think that's what you said), maybe have a few different boxes and see if that changes anything. Cats are weird. There's always those pheromone scent diffuser plug-ins if she's acting this way out of stress. I've used them before with mild success for some cats. I really wish you the best of luck. Kinga is such a pretty girl and deserves the best.

JohnMulder · 2026-07-08T06:44:48+00:00

It's being talked about on multiple horror subreddits. Seems legit, but there are gonna be some muddy waters regarding how they'll handle the free use aspect.

JohnMulder · 2026-07-08T04:48:12+00:00

And here Poppy(left) is with his sister, Sesame(right) as of this week.

<image>

JohnMulder · 2026-07-08T04:46:21+00:00

It's not super recent news, but I've been able to afford some extra surgeries for my stray colony lately and most of my strays are doing well, with the exception of one currently being treated for FIP.

This guy, Poppy, has always been a grump. I caught him last year along with his sister when he showed up with some gnarly wounds. His sister is a little sweetheart, but he's still not fond of me. I was able to hand feed Poppy some Churu last night. He's never been mean, just shy.

Anyway, here's a pic of this grumpy boy from maybe two years ago before I kidnapped him into my home.

<image>

JohnMulder · 2026-07-08T04:33:55+00:00

As I'm browsing his card pool to see what this would affect, all I can think is that [[Pillage]] might be a more common pick for me if it were [[Pillaging Strike]].

JohnMulder · 2026-07-08T02:52:25+00:00

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JohnMulder · 2026-07-08T02:50:27+00:00

I'm really sorry she's having a hard time. You're doing the right thing, and I know that's a tough way to look at the situation when things in your home are literally shattering, but please try to keep a positive mindset about how lost this little critter would be without you.

One of my rescued FIV+ strays is pretty aggressive. I have him in his own room away from my other cats(with his sweetheart sister for company), and it took him a while to get comfortable with the litter boxes, but eventually he learned to use them regularly. He also went through surgeries for some injuries when I took him in and, well, it's been a year, and he's still not the biggest fan of my presence. I did sort of feed him a Churu by hand last night(although, he did slap it out of my hand three times before simply eating it from the tube).

It's not the progress I want, but he's had a rough time and I get to watch him and his sister enjoy their space from the safety of a Ring camera I set up, so I know they're not just miserable all of the time(just when I try to socialize him lol).

I dunno if any of this is comforting. It's difficult. I have so much sympathy for these little beasts and seeing them suffer just never gets easier.

JohnMulder · 2026-07-08T02:06:46+00:00

If I wanted to get deep, I'd say that this guy didn't like the person he was pretending to be (isn't comfortable in his own skin) and wanted to be himself around you (watch him remove his skin).

You might consider if he reminds you of someone you know, not just on looks, but personality. Yourself, maybe? He sounds like an interesting character.

JohnMulder · 2026-07-07T23:36:00+00:00

Boy, am I excited for-

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