this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2026
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Animals

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A True Friend (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 month ago by anon6789@lemmy.world to c/animals@lemmy.world
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From Derek Friend

Ok... so my empathy may stretch a little too far.

This is my Spider pet/friend.. she's always making a web on my loader. Well, Monday I backed into a tree limb and I was worried she was injured or gone.

My fear was true yesterday, she didn't make a web yesterday morning for the first time in months, and I felt like it was my fault so I felt awful all freaking day. I literally looked over an hour trying to find her in the crevices of my loader. NOWHERE!!!!

Got to work this morning and here she is in all her glory. 🤣🤣🤣 I was so freakin happy.

I think my empathy needs to be dialed back some because my soul hurt for a spider. 🥲

Jeffersonville, Kentucky

(Her name is Orbitz)

You are a kind spider bro, Derek! ♥️

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[–] Strawberry@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Your empathy is good where it is! Don't ever tell yourself that you should suppress that instinct. Just because spiders and other crustaceans don't look like us, and we can't communicate with them, doesn't mean they aren't living their own complex lives, or that they aren't capable of suffering.

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

I agree! These couple of downvoters don't know what they're missing.

[–] A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I tend to leave them alone; they eat the more pesky insects.

After a few years of that in the same flat, it shows. I feel like the Addams family.

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I never disliked the spiders because I knew they were good in principle.

One summer I had a huge orb weaver on my porch, but also a ton of moths that would swarm me whenever I'd go through the door. I started catching the moths in a little jar and shaking them out at the web. That spider got pretty huge, and in return, I got to learn spiders are our friends.

The moths never came back in such numbers, and I've had a comfortable number of porch spiders ever since.

Inside, I usually only encounter little jumping spiders. They are cute, but don't want to be friends, so I just leave them to their business.

Most people find them creepy, but they're probably the most actually useful animals for us to keep around.

[–] A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

All animals are neither good nor bad, they just are.

Depending how one defines "good" - well, imo they're all good.

[–] elevenbones@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

🥹

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

I am glad you, and so many other people, enjoyed this little story!

I wasn't sure how this one would go over with the group at large, but I thought showing such love and concern over one of the smallest of creatures was very sweet. If only more people could show such compassion! ♥️