just had a fucking fantastic hour
a while ago, we figured out there were some spores in izzy's soil, but we didnt change it because this mushroom is harmless and izzy is a brazillian white knee, aka super angry and everyone including her is very stressed during rehousing, so we just left the fungus to do its thing. the mushrooms died in the winter, but now that its getting a bit warmer again, one grew in the corner of her enclosure earlier today.
so just an hour ago, she went to check it out. and this probably wasnt random wandering, because theres only three spots in her enclosure that she likes to be in, and this particular corner is none of them.
(also hey her ball is in a different spot! shes rolled it over to her house! delightful!)
then i saw her tapping at it, and that may very well mean that she smelt something, went over in its general direction, and was tapping at it to try and prompt a reciprocal tapping to confirm if it was another tarantula.
in other words, i think izzy may have asked a mushroom if it was a spider.
alternatively, she may have mistaken the mushroom for a threat, and could have been drumming to intimidate it? this doesnt tend to happen with things that don't move, but it is possible.
so by this point, my evening is going amazingly, and i think nothing could possibly make it better. then izzy got bored and walked back to her water bowl, and rested one of her paws on the glass.
now i like to gently high five my tarantulas when they do this, because it doesnt tend to bother them all that much and it makes me incredibly fulfilled in life. felix (my mexican red knee) doesnt react or seem to notice, goober (my gbb) doesnt react, and izzy, being the permanently on edge ball of rage that she is, jerked away from the glass the one time i tried before.
i saw her foot on the glass and thought i could try one more time and see if she was a little calmer this time round, and very gently gave her a high five by putting my finger against the other side of the glass. she jerked a little, and then put two more legs on the glass in response. i, in turn, put two more fingers on the other side. she then added more legs, i high fived those too, this kept going until i was giving her an 8 fingered high five. a high eight if you will.
now this is not only a lovely little example of tarantula curiosity, especially from a tarantula that can by no means be considered docile, but is also the best fucking thing to ever happen to me. i am fucking ecstatic. i will die a happy person because a TARANTULA HIGH FIVED ME ON PURPOSE