The Anal Spider, R.I.P

Nature can be so cruel. At least, we think She is cruel. What she really is, is efficient. It's very nearly the same thing.

My little hard-working, anal spider, who tried so hard to keep her ill-placed web clean of debris, has become breakfast for the praying mantis she failed to take note of when she moved in. Oh, the humani--er--spideranity! I found the mantis this morning, looking very self-satisfied, directly under the tattered remnants of the spider's last web. The spider was nowhere to be seen. I assume the worst. Mantises only go where they can eat, and that poor spider was a sitting duck--er--arachnid.

I feel bad. I was hoping she'd find a nice little thistledown-free nook near her original location, and be able to spin her web once more and start catching insects and lay eggs, and *sniffle* raise some kiddies....
... but it was not to be. Ma Nature has decreed that everything is eventually a meal for something else, and my poor little spider was designated as food for the mantis instead of being one of the lucky ones who gets to breed and continue. As much as it saddens us sometimes, it is the circle of life in high relief; sort of like watching a beautiful gazelle brought down by an equally beautiful cheetah on the Discovery Channel. You don't know who to cheer for. The cycle can only continue when everyone is fed.