The New Class Pet - v 2.1

My boys came to me today, heads hanging low... Bruce was nowhere to be found... as I (not-so) subtly lifted my feet off the ground and sat cross-legged on my swiss ball (not an easy feat, but I was holding on to the table) while they sighed quite pitifully.  I tried to contain my terror at the thought of big, hairy Bruce wandering around my classroom and forced a sweet smile onto my face. 

Until one of them brightened considerably and gleefully informed me, "But Bruce has left lots of baby Bruces for us!"  I think I went a little bit green at this point.  I suggested Brucetta for a new name (since obviously he, was a she) but that wasn't nearly imaginative enough.  No... this is what they decided:

K.A.T.E. - Killer Acrobatic Terrifying Energetic

How cute are they?!  Since it's a girl spider, she obviously needs little hearts!  I've never enjoyed a spider so much!  To be honest, I've never enjoyed a spider before. 

Regardless, they checked on her and her babies throughout the day (they reckon she went away to die after having her babies, like Charlotte.)  They were overjoyed to find her hiding up in the corner of the windowsill around lunchtime.  The boys were SO excited about all this arachnaction (you see what I did there?)  that they ended up spending the morning researching New Zealand spiders and terrifying spider stories (which I told them they were not to share with me under any circumstances.)  They were so engaged in their research that I didn't hear a peep out of them for the rest of the morning (which in itself is a bit of a Christmas miracle.)

I couldn't help myself and checked for her at the end of the day, but she was nowhere to be found.  I was pretty grateful on some level that I wasn't being confronted by K.A.T.E., but felt quite sad for my boys.  Crazy, but I hope she's there tomorrow.