START SHAKING OUT THE BED SHEETS

We usually don't see these things until the ends of summer. This is the earliest I've ever spotted a wolf spider. I was minding my own business, blogging the photo of the cat, when this specimen scampered out from under the couch where I am sitting. Yikes. We don't squash bugs here, we collect them and deposit them outside. In the case of big, hairy spiders, this is as much a practicality as it is an ethical move. Smashing a bug this big is simply a mess. You can't even tell how big this spider is because it's scrunched up in defense. And this is hardly the biggest one who has visited. But it's the first one of the year, the earliest one on record in our house, and marks the beginning of the season of shaking out the bedding, the shoes, looking twice in the corners, etc.