There’s a new eight-legged resident at The Grove, in Middlesbrough – Emily the tarantula!
The friendly arachnid is owned by David, who wanted to get one for himself after he took a liking to his sister’s pet spider.
And David was helped to make his dream come true by the Grove’s manager, Anthony Risker, who used to have 200 spiders himself!
Team Leader Jake Sawyer, said David was thrilled to have his own pet tarantula.
He said: ‘After we did all the risk assessments, we took David down to the local pet store and he chose the spider he most liked the look of – that was Emily.
“David may actually change the name as the spider grows, and we get to see what gender it is – apparently you can tell this by the size of its legs!”
The spider is now living in a tank in David’s room where it is fed a regular diet of crickets.
David, 18, has been learning all about how to keep his new pet fit and well and has even drawn up a feeding a cleaning schedule.
Jake added: “It’s been a really great experience for David, it’s teaching him lots of useful skills, like being responsible for another living creature.
“At times he takes Emily out of his tank so she can stretch her legs on the bed – but then she always has to go back to the tank!
“The other residents are totally fine with Emily; in fact I think she’s the new star attraction.”
