We aren’t really pet people. We don’t have a cat, dog, or any other furry creature, but somehow we’ve managed to gather an eclectic collection of wildlife here at home. We have three tetra fish. The blue one is named "daddy," the pink one is named "mommy," and the translucent yellowish one is named "baby." We have a pet spider, a gorgeous golden orb weaver spider outside our door I named "Charlotte," after the fictional spider Charlotte in Charlotte’s web. Our Charlotte’s web is a bit messier than Charlotte’s web in the children’s classic.
Then we have "Pest," a collection of pesky mosquitoes that have migrated into our home. Korea has plenty. It doesn’t help that our home isn’t far from a giant pool near a big city park, a good mosquito breeding ground. In fact, the mosquito buzzing around my head right now helped me think of this trivial blog entry. Now that the weather has turned cooler (it’s been a beautiful fall), the mosquitoes are trying to move in full force. It seems that every night we have at least three mosquitoes in each room. We won’t be able to root them out until late November or December. They arrive in early spring and stay with us for about seven months. I definitely will not miss the mosquitoes when we leave Korea. I will miss Charlotte and the fish family, though. We can’t take the fish with us, and we plan to donate them to someone in the neighborhood. Charlotte will disappear within a few weeks as the frost sets in, her life having run its course. I will miss the golden orb weaver spiders. They are absolutely the most beautiful spiders I have ever seen. I wonder what critters will be waiting for us in Paraguay. Spiders, mosquitoes, and snakes, I’m sure. Oh, my!
