My Home Is NOT a Sanctuary Today

There's a gigantic spider on the kitchen ceiling, and I am arachnophobic. I am silently screaming as I type. I'm also trying very hard not to panic. This spider could eat one of my cats.

And yet, I find myself both running for the field guide to identify it (jumping spider, family Salticidae) AND going back in to check on it because it's so blasted fascinating. Creepy, but entirely fascinating.

>update: 12:44PM< The spider has been liberated. I discovered it on the stove, and gently removed it to the back porch, where we are both greatly relieved.

OK, I really have no idea how the spider feels about it, of if the spider has any feelings about it, but I know I'm much happier.

Of course, the field guide says Salticidae behavior includes entering houses and hunting on window ledges. So I've got a spider with a proclivity towards B&E, which means I this is just Round 1. Given the size, she's a female. And we all know what that means...

I'm soooooooooo lucky.