Oh, What A Web We Weave

Do you remember the book, Charlotte's Web, written by E.B. White?  It was a children's story about a pig named Wilbur who was the runt of the litter.  Because Wilbur was such a runt, the farmer was going to kill him.  The farmer's daughter, Fern, however, talked her dad into saving the pig.  Fern cared for Wilbur, fed him with a bottle, put him in a baby stroller, and became very attached to Wilbur.

Soon Wilbur became too large to keep.  Mr. Zuckerman, a farmer nearby, purchased Wilbur.  Wilbur arrived at his new home and had no friends at first.  Then someone spoke to him.  It was Charlotte, a big grey spider.  Wilbur and Charlotte become close friends and all is going well until it is discovered that Wilbur will be killed and will turn into Christmas Dinner. 

Charlotte?

Charlotte hatches a plan to save Wilbur's life by writing notes in her web above Wilbur that say, "Some Pig!" and things like that.  People in the town flock to the farm to read the messages and the pig about whom they're written.  Wilbur's life is saved!

What a story!  I left off the sad part and the end.  You'll have to go read it again for yourself.  As I walked out to the barn this weekend, right above the barn gate a banana spider had spun a web.  She had caught breakfast and was wrapping it all up.

Her web looked out over a mud hole that Rosie, our Jersey cow, likes to lay in each day in order to cool herself.  Each day we have to give Rosie a bath before milking her.  We don't have pigs on our farm, but each and every day, we call Rosie a pig.  The spider above our barn gate hadn't written "Some Pig!" in her web, but her web gave her a panoramic view of Rosie in her mud hole, and I'm sure that she (like us) certainly thought it.  Hopefully the weather will cool off soon so our 'pig' will stop laying in the mud all day.