[STORYTIME!]72/365: “He was a killer, a thing that preyed, living on the things that lived, unaided, alone, by virtue of his own strength and prowess, surviving triumphantly in a hostile environment where only the strong survive.” ~ Jack London

STORY TIME!!!!!

SHE MADE IT!!!!! SHE MADE IT!!!! Roscoe Frank McCrawlerson* has survived her hibernation (brumation) through a freezing winter!! And here she sits triumphantly upon a moth four times her size that she caught, tied up, hoisted up to her spot where she lives, and is guarding, proud and victorious! HOORAY, HOORAY for my little friend!!!! *does a Snoopy Dance all over the room*
*I discovered in time that Roscoe was actually a female, but kept her name as it was given. I have changed all gender to reflect that she is a female.

I met Roscoe back at the beginning of September when I noticed her tiny 1/4" form in the center of a web she built just next to our front door on our porch! I was instantly smitten by this adorable little spider, and I took lots of pictures of her over the next month or two. However, I began to worry about her because winter was fast approaching. I learned that spiders can survive a freezing winter and will sometimes hibernate without dying. Spiders, like many other creatures (including frogs), have a kind of anti-freeze in their blood and this is how they can stay alive when other animals die.

When the temperatures began to dip into the freezing zone, Roscoe stopped making her orb-shaped webs and sat in her little nook with legs pulled in, never moving. But I didn't think she was dead, and I took a peek at her every single day, hoping but with a worry in my heart. I know she's "just" a spider, but I love this little lady and I really wanted her to make it!!

The months ticked off... November... December... January... February... and then March came and just when I began to worry that she might possibly be dead, I found her in the middle of a new web she'd made one night a few days ago!! I was so excited!! MY LITTLE BUDDY WAS ALIVE!!!! We had some flightless fruit flies in a jar, and I sprinkled a few in my hand and threw them at the web, hoping at least one would stick. DIRECT HIT!! One of them stuck and Roscoe POUNCED!! YAYYYYY!!!!! Oh how happy I was that she had a snack! Yesterday I tossed more flies in and she got one to eat! YES!!

Last night I let the dogs out and took a peek...I saw something twirling near her spot, and I nearly yelled in delight! Roscoe was riding on this moth, which was twisting and twirling from a strong reinforced strand of web that Roscoe fashioned, and she was running all over the moth, which was completely encased in web! Just INCREDIBLE!!! How such a small spider can overpower a large moth and keep it from escaping...it's amazing!!

I checked an hour later and she'd reeled in his prize and was sitting just as she is now, waiting for the moth to die before starting in on her magnificent feast! I took some quick pictures but I was hoping she'd still be there at midnight so I could take pictures for my 365 today...and just like a good friend, she waited for me to get my pictures!!! WHAT A PAL!!!!

This morning I looked and she'd already released the moth's body from her web, and I found it below, an abandoned husk. I cooed at Roscoe, who was back on her spot, and told her how happy I was that she'd made it through the winter just fine!! I've been smiling all day long! So happy!!!

John Griffith "Jack" London (born John Griffith Chaney, January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916) was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone.[6] He is best remembered as the author of The Call of the Wild and White Fang, both set in the Klondike Gold Rush, as well as the short stories "To Build a Fire", "An Odyssey of the North", and "Love of Life".[citation needed] He also wrote of the South Pacific in such stories as "The Pearls of Parlay" and "The Heathen", and of the San Francisco Bay area in The Sea Wolf. Wkipedia: Jack London