{"id":20714,"date":"2025-06-28T02:54:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T02:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/20714\/"},"modified":"2025-06-28T02:54:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T02:54:11","slug":"woman-forms-magical-friendship-with-a-tiny-spider-living-in-her-bathroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/20714\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman Forms Magical Friendship With A Tiny Spider Living In Her Bathroom"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apple Valley Farm Sanctuary<\/a> in Penrose, Colorado, is home to around 100 rescued animals, all lovingly cared for by Deanna Downer and her husband, Weldon. But while farm animals are their focus, the sanctuary has also been home to a different kind of resident.<\/p>\n

This little jumping spider, named Ocho.<\/p>\n

Apple Valley Farm Sanctuary<\/a><\/p>\n

It all began last December, when Downer was watering a potted orchid in her bathroom. That\u2019s when she noticed the tiny, black spider perched on the lip of the planter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI watered the plant, and he went after the water,\u201d Downer told The Dodo. \u201cSo I grabbed a Q-tip, wet it and set it down next to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Downer figured Ocho must be thirsty \u2014 and it appeared that he was.<\/p>\n

Apple Valley Farm Sanctuary<\/a><\/p>\n

Remarkably, the spider seemed totally unafraid of Downer, and the next day, he was there again atop the planter. Downer gave him another water-soaked Q-tip.<\/p>\n

And soon this became a routine. Downer even began chatting with Ocho as she stood in the bathroom preparing for her day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI absolutely loved our daily chats,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Apple Valley Farm Sanctuary<\/a><\/p>\n

Months passed, with Ocho remaining in Downer\u2019s bathroom \u2014 and six months later, he\u2019s still around. Nowadays, however, he’s taken to exploring the rest of the home.<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll still make the occasional appearance out in the open, but they\u2019ve become less frequent.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always know it’s him when I do get to see him,\u201d Downer said.<\/p>\n

Apple Valley Farm Sanctuary<\/a><\/p>\n

Downer is happy to have made a friend in Ocho, and she encourages others to keep an open mind about sharing their space \u2014 and their kindness \u2014 with creatures like him.<\/p>\n

Apple Valley Farm Sanctuary<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re all so conditioned to believe insects or spiders, snakes, etc., are \u2018scary,\u2019\u201d Downer said. \u201cI want to show other folks that they really aren’t scary at all, and all they want is to be respected, just like us. My hope is that others would follow along and be kind to the spiders they see in their homes, instead of killing them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/a>Woman Has Shared Her Home With A Giant Spider For The Past YearHer name is Charlotte, and she’s basically part of the family \u2764\ufe0f<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Apple Valley Farm Sanctuary in Penrose, Colorado, is home to around 100 rescued animals, all lovingly cared for…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":20715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[19259,19258,50,159,10235,19257,19256,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-20714","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-animal-encounters","9":"tag-daily-dodo","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-standard","13":"tag-stephen-messenger","14":"tag-the-dodo","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114758737476055472","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}